While some may believe that persuasion is dead, it is clear that it is not. Some may not agree with this is what I have to say because they believe it is and refuse to change their mind on the subject no matter what they hear. This is fine because there are those that it is very difficult or even impossible to persuade.
Matt Miller wrote on article on this idea titled "Is Persuasion Dead?" In his article he wrote about politics and said that politicians and the press had killed off persuasion, but not intentionally. I disagree with him. I'm not sure what Miller's opinion is when it comes to persuasion in places other than politics because he ignored these other areas in his article, but it is in these places where persuasion is still alive. When deciding where you want to shop many people will either go to their favorite store, or somewhere that is having really good sales. It is these sales that persuade customers to come to the store and buy their products.
Proof that persuasion is not dead lies in the simple fact that advertising is still going on, both in politics and in everyday life. It is in these ads that people are persuaded to buy products, shop at certain store, eat at a restaurant, and vote for someone. We are constantly seeing ads for products everywhere we go. When you are in a city it is impossible to go down any street without seeing a billboard somewhere or even an ad painted on the side of a bus. The problem is not that persuasion is dead, its simply that people no longer realize that we are being persuaded. When is the last time you have watched a commercial and thought to yourself that the company just tried to persuade you to buy your product? Chances are you didn't think this, all you thought was why is this junk playing instead of my show? While you may think you just ignored a commercial for something you actually didn't. If you just saw a commercial for a certain brand, next time you are at the store and see the name, chances are you will think about trying it out. If you do, then you were just persuaded to buy that product. The same goes with politics. There are a lot of positions that many voters don't even realize they are going to have to vote on until they show up at the polls. Chances are that sometime leading up to the election, one of the candidates for one of these lesser known categories ran a commercial or put up a billboard somewhere. When you go to vote and recognize the name, if you vote for that person over the other one you haven't heard of, you were persuaded to vote for this person.
Even in every Presidential election there is persuasion. This is made obvious by the so called "swing voters." These are the people that are undecided sometimes right up until they cast their actual vote. These are the people that are unsure of who they want to vote for and sometimes win an election for one candidate. A lot of time is focused on these "swing voters" because candidates know that they are the ones who have to be persuaded in order to win their vote. There are even "swing states" that candidates have to pay attention to because if they ignore them and their opponent does not, then they will vote for the one who paid the most attention to them.
It's for those very simple reasons that I disagree with Miller and I know that persuasion is still alive. It is used in everyday life and it is also still alive in politics today. The only difference is that now instead of people realizing it's going on, we have gotten so used to it that we just ignore it until the product or person pops into our head later on.
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I’m not dead, I am everywhere!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHey all,
I am currently sitting in Champagne-Urbana and cannot help but find your post about the art of persuasion as on the ball. We do live in a society that constantly bombards us with persuasion. If one takes time to contemplate this phenomenon they will realize that not only is persuasion alive and well, but it is deeply entrenched into our society. Advertising, Politicians and even our news media are a few of the many vehicles through which persuasion thrives.
Before I get into how persuasion has manifested itself in our society, it is important to go over a few things. First, persuasion can be a good thing! While many are scornful of advertisements, political rhetoric and new broadcasts, without them those same people would be lost. When done ethically, persuasion is an essential tool for keeping the public informed. Without advertising, people would not know about new products and pricing. Think of how many times you have used the line “ I saw your competitors ad in the paper and they were cheaper.” This also holds true for politicians. Like most Americans, I keep track of little that goes on in Washington. And most of the things I do keep track of I know little about. This is mainly attributed to the fact I am not privy to most of the details or that I lack the time to read over a 1,000-page stimulus package. Rather, I rely on campaign rhetoric and the news media to keep let me know what the bill contains.
The second thing people should realize about persuasion is that even though we hate to admit it, persuasion it works. Think about how many people watch the super bowl just for the commercials!!! Although many of them can be entertaining, who could forget Budweiser’s was upp or this year’s Doritos commercials; they have one goal in mind. That goal is to convince the 100 million people watching to go out and buy their product.
So effective and ingrained in our culture are super bowl advertisements that companies spend upwards of $3 million to have the chance to pitch their product. While expensive, the rewards significantly outweigh the risks. When done right, a super bowl ad will be spoken about for years to come and replayed all over television and Internet. Think about it, the news media, which makes its money off revenue, will show your advertisement for free!!! Coca-Cola’s advertisement featuring Mean Joe Green is a perfect example. Considered one of the best commercials ever, the advertisement is a staple of every super bowl ad discussion. That means vicariously we are discussing Coca-Cola and the supposed “happiness” that their product spreads.
Not only is advertising big in the super bowl, some of the most successful global corporations have been successful do to advertising. Over the past few years, Apply spent a large amount of money effectively marketing their product to young adults. As a result, their market share has grown exponentially and despite the recession, they have continued to increase sales. Their hip marketing campaign, fraught with a young kid as a Mac and an old seemingly out of touch man as a P.C has been largely effective. Walk into any lecture hall across the country and count how many little apples you see on the back of people’s laptops. Apple’s marketing campaign for the IPod was just as magnificent. Convincing people to pay for an arguably inferior product is difficult. What apple did was associate the IPod with being hip. Suddenly, everyone wanted an IPod instead of the cheaper mp3 player. Through advertising, the IPod became a status symbol!
While Apple’s meteoric rise is a rare feat, advertising has allowed numerous companies to thrive. The success of advertising cannot be measured in a strictly numerical method. Many valid points can be made to help explain the success of Apple. Steve Jobs did do a masterful job at keeping costs down and delivering new and innovative products and Apple was fortunate to gain prominence during a boom time in our economy. While these points are true, one cannot disagree with the fact that their marketing campaigns have been super and can be seen as a microcosm for the way Apple is run.
The next time somebody asks if the art of persuasion is dead tell him or her the truth. No, persuasion is anything and everything. The coffee you buy, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the cell phone you use, for all these purchases, somebody somewhere had convinced you that was the best product for the best price. So no, persuasion isn’t dead, it has just evolved into an organism that is so big and powerful that it works its magic without us realizing.