frontline: the persuaders

[wei yau]

frontline: the persuaders (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/)

"THE PERSUADERS: What's going on in the world of today's marketers and advertisers? What are the new and surprising methods they're using to decipher who we are and what we want? And where is this taking us?"

I caught the last half of this program, it was an eye-opening program. When I started watching the program, they were discussing the power of marketing gurus and the methods used by one particular guru. All of this was seemingly innocuous. Yes, I don't like the current state of advertising and I'm aware that I'm probably being manipulated to some degree...but we're just talking about consumerism.

But, when the topic moved to political "advertising"...wow, things got dark.

Has anyone seen it? It looks like it'll be on again, I intend to watch the whole program.

[livius drusus]

I saw it advertised and then totally forgot about it. I'll definitely catch the repeat. Have you read Walter Lippman's Public Opinion (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684833271/ref=pd_sim_b_4/102-8611658-6521763?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance)? It's 80 years old and hasn't aged a day.

[wei yau]

I've not read Public Opinion, but I will now...just as soon as I get through the pile of books by my nighstand.

In one of the reviews, I see that Lippman uses WWI as a frame of reference. It wasn't until I read The Great Influenza, that I realized just how much political turmoil there was surrounding America's entrance into WWI. The nation described did not resemble the nation I thought I knew. Pretty scary stuff with regards to spying on your neighbors and swearing fealty to the country.

[Petra]

Thanks for the heads up. The show will be available in it's entirety from Friday 12th Nov, so I'll make a point of watching it.

[viscousmemories]

That looks interesting, eldar. I'll be looking for it on the 12th too.

[godfry n. glad]

Sure... I caught everything except what was obscured by a telephone call.

Great stuff. Excellent programming.

Combine this stuff with knowledge of ownership of election electronic balloting technology and it's really scary.

godfry

[Petra]

Combine this stuff with knowledge of ownership of election electronic balloting technology and it's really scary.


Throw in a little war corporatism for good measure, and welcome to the PNAC.

[flufeemunk]

You can watch it here (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/view/) if you wish. I am a bit busy right now so I'll watch it and post my thoughts this evening.

[Petra]

I watched this in parts over a couple of days. The splitting of the program into 6 separate chapters was appreciated.

I have some (dated and minor) industry insight and an appetite for this kind of thing, and I found the documentary to be an intelligent, dynamic and insightful probe into an endlessly fascinating subject. So thanks, Eldar, for hooking us up. :)


The (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/etc/synopsis.html) links (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/themes/) are (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/forum/) good (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/talk/), too (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/).

I'm going to be lost in those pages for days. :abook: