Search - Frontline: The Persuaders on DVD

Informative and Interesting

Dr. Joan E. Aitken | Kansas City, MO United States | 05/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Thought-provoking and entertaining. I've used this film in undergraduate courses about persuasion. The presentation has accurate content and the presentation is lively. I've enjoyed watching the film multiple times, and my students seem interested.



My only complaint is that one of the case studies is about launching the Song Airline, which didn't work. That case dates the piece."

The selling of products, brands and politicians.

Preston C. Enright | Denver, CO United States | 04/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While PBS is often establishment-friendlyAir Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting, sometimes they take a radical look at the water we fish are swimming in. "The Persuaders" is a revealing look at marketing, and how often our emotions (often subconsciously) play a role in our product purchases. The first part of "The Persuaders" analyzes how we seek things like community and transcendence in our products. Critics like Naomi Klein No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies are interviewed, as well as figures in marketing agencies and a marketing "guru" who seeks to understand the "reptilian" part of our brains. The last part of "The Persuaders" looks into how these marketing techniques have been employed by politicians. Republican public opinion researcher Frank Luntz is interviewed. He has had much success by reframing issues, such as changing the name of the Estate tax to the "Death" tax. Another successful rebranding campaign was to label the war on Iraq the War on Terror War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

Slowly but surely, people do develop an "immunity" to some of these emtionally manipulative psychological operations, especially when consciousness is raised about them.

Here are a couple other related resources to enable our intellectual self-defense from the "persuaders":

The Corporation

Propaganda and the Public Mind

PR! - A Social History of Spin

Adbusters, January/February 2009 Issue

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain

Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising"