The Persuaders hw

After watching “The Persuaders” I have seen advertisements in a different light. I did not realize that they pretty much everywhere in our world. I believe that because they are seen everywhere they have become a part of our lives and mesh into our daily routine. We see them but forget the add quickly until later in our lives when we might actually need what is trying to be sold. Other times we might see an ad and immediately think they we need the product as soon as possible or we cannot function normally. I have seen videos like the one shown in class but not at such a level where it shows that advertisements control our lives.

One of points from the video that I found amazing and also a little scary is that websites will remember your searches and will put up ads of what you might like. The idea that my hobbies and other information is saved somewhere makes me feel a little uneasy. It’s as if someone is always watching me and saving my updates and I cannot control it. Another point that was mentioned that I found neat was when the advertising researcher said that there are words that sound appealing to people. There was a part in the video when a group of people with different political views was put into a room. When certain words would be said they would have the same kinds of emotions and I thought that was interesting. What surprised me was when it showed all of the research that goes into advertisements.  The amount of money that a company would pay to know the best way to get their product known is something that I had no idea on. Something that I have not thought of is when I watch t.v., companies will actually pay for the shows to make their product apart of the storyline. After thinking about it there are more companies that do this then I have realized.

After watching the presentation I can say that the way I consume media is the same. I am not one to look for a particular company when buying a product. I do research on what companies are better for particular products but that is to know if I am getting what I pay for mostly. I couldn’t tell you the brand of my jeans and I don’t have an iPhone. I will say that because of ads I can know about a product better but I feel that most ads will not persuade me to them.

Since the video I have seen a few examples of techniques that companies use. The first one is product placement where I saw subway on a t.v. show I was watching. I also noticed that the brand name was perfectly in frame so you could read it easy. Another ad that I saw used the technique making you feel like a part of a group if you buy it. The windows surface is a new aged laptop and the ad had a bunch of people having one while at school. I felt like the ad was saying that this laptop is a great product to have at school and it is popular too.