Sunday, November 11, 2012
Week 12 Post 3
Every day we are being persuaded. Whether it’s our parents telling us which route to take in life, or someone trying to get you to go somewhere when you really can’t, we are all persuaded and persuade others. The biggest form of persuasion however, I think is media. Magazines, internet, TV and bulletin boards all persuade people where to go, what to buy or how to look. In an English class I took here at Sierra College, my professor spent a good amount of time teaching us how we are all persuaded by media. If you see an ad for drinking or smoking, you usually buy into it by the images. The background is usually filled with models surrounded by wealthy people or places, when in reality advertisers use those to bring people in. Or another example would be those Carl’s Jr commercials. Come on, who really rides a bull, eats a cheeseburger, and looks that good all at the same time? I could go on about the various ways that sex sells, but that’s only one technique the media uses to persuade. To become a deeper thinker about these things, examine the background, colors, language, values, and actions and asses why they use them.
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I know some people like commercials but I'm not one of them. That's why I usually look at the background and notice all the stuff you said about commercials. I even get to experience it working at mcdonalds. Customers don't look like or talk like the commercials and employees don't always act like they do in commercials either (mcdonalds has one of the worse training system for new employees). Its sad because what if someone really does have a good idea but because all the other commercials try to persuade their customers using misleading advertisement people will stop trusting everything. I guess as consumers we just have to make the most logical decision when choosing products.
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