Blog 2: The Persuaders

One of the issues talked about in the video was the fact that less and less people are watching the TV ads, so the advertising industry needs to develop better ways to deliver their message. It talked about how some companies were working with the show creators to insert their ads directly into the TV shows. The video talked about how it was semi-successful depending on how obvious it was that the ads were placed in the show with a purpose. I personally feel that blatant ads in TV shows and movies would be a bad move for creators because it'll wind up degrading the story and viewing experience. The video also talked about how some companies are reducing their advertising on TV but increasing it on the internet. I feel that this is a better move because everything in society is merging into the internet, but at the same time I don't think it will be very effective. All those banner ads in the margins of internet sites and pre-roll commercials are quite easy to get rid of with a simple ad-block extension. It only takes a few clicks and one browser restart to get rid of all those ads. It's so easy even your grandma could do it! Because of this I feel that advertising will either out program the ad-block programmers or the entertainment industries will have to evolve to find new ways of generating a profit.

Another topic brought up in the video was the need of advertisers to stand out in the clutter of advertisements. The advertising companies are developing new ways to get people's attention and connect with people so they're more likely to buy the products. One man mentioned that he was doing research on how religious cults are formed, so he could apply the same knowledge to advertising to get people hooked on a certain brand of products. I find this particular approach quite disturbing, because it seems to have the goal of teaching people to ignore logical reasoning and instead choose products solely because the person belongs to a specific kind of brand or wants to be a part of that brand and feel like he belongs.