The Persuaders or How Marketers Manipulate the Way You Think

Three years ago, PBS Frontline produced The Persuaders, a 90 minute documentary which examines how the cultures of marketing and advertising not only influence what Americans buy but the way they view themselves and the world.

Giant corporations spend billions of dollars by employing an army of copywriters, consultants, linguists, anthropologists and ad gurus, all in a bid to influence what the average citizen thinks.

Their end goal is simple: to craft messages which persuade people towards a favorable course of action. They not only want you to do what is most beneficial for their goals (trust me/buy my product) but also to believe that you’re doing the best thing for yourself under all circumstances. And they’re actually succeeding.

I recently wrote about The Century of the Self, a brilliant four part documentary on the marriage between psychology, big business and politics. The Persuaders operates in a similar vein by examining how marketers create campaigns that focus on heightening a consumer’s emotional attachment to a product or personality.

Taking the 2004 Presidential elections as a case study, the Persuaders examines how politicians tailor their message to each demographic group, a technique known as narrowcasting: the crafting and delivering of customized messages to individual voters/buyers based on their demographic profiles.

This method is used extensively in the private sector. Data mining companies like Acxiom hold detailed historical information on a consumer’s buying habits, age and income and this ammo is used by politicians and businesses to develop messages that are incredibly targeted, in order to incite a specific response from the buyer.

While a good ad campaign strategy, marketers know that brand fervor is still key:

“What consumers want now is an emotional connection—they want to be able to connect with what’s behind the brand, what’s behind the promise,” says Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising. “The brands that can move to that emotional level, that can create loyalty beyond reason, are going to be the brands where premium profits lie.”

Apart from the documentary, there’s a good deal of extended interviews with political consultants, media critics, professors and famous authors like Naomi Klein. They are worth a read if you’re interested in learning more on this fascinating topic.

The whole documentary itself is available on the PBS website, although I’ve found it difficult to stream the videos at times. I’ve had no trouble watching it a year ago so hopefully you’ll be able to get it loading. It’s also available on DVD at Amazon.

I’ll leave you with what Douglas Rushkoff has to say about the documentary:

When the same persuasion industry is engaged to influence these very different kinds of decision-making, it’s easy for our roles as consumers and our roles as citizens to get blurred. By revealing some of the most effective practices of the persuasion business, we may better understand our choices and perhaps make wiser ones.

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