What are "The Persuaders?"

"Break Through the Clutter"

Marketing Clutter is a scary sight.

An interesting phrase that was used often in this Frontline video is  “breaking through the clutter.” Throughout the use of the phrase; I was trying to figure out what exactly it was they meant by this and later realized it was about being spontaneous. Taking a chance in a creative way is what breaking through the clutter is all about. In the Advertising industry, you have to think about what the consumer wants and how to collaborate and make it work for both your client and the consumer.

Immunity

In relation to breaking through the clutter, the video also address the immunity consumers endure when living in an "advertising dominant' world. With immunity comes the urge to take more risk because advertisement is no longer capturing the interest of the consumer, making newer brands hard to reach them. The idea of building an immunity to advertisement is interesting to me because I never thought about that, but with immunity you don't think about it. However, I don't think immunity is a good term for it,  normality is a less dramatized term. 

What every Ad eventually looks like

The Persuaders

The video also introduces "persuasion advertisement," which is in response to the concerns of immunity. It addresses the shift in advertisement by explaining how it became more about the meaning of the product rather than the product itself. They use examples like Nike and Starbucks; Nike with the meaning of sports through their products and Starbucks with their community building (outside of work and home) through their product. Such advertisement approaches, like these, are very effective and ultimately make a brand of themselves. Who doesn't know that Nike is where you get your athletic attire and Starbucks is where you get your morning started. However, these "brands" are very dangerous to consumers. How? Well that is another subject brought up and to sum it all up in one phrase, cult brands. Cults and Brands go together because they both create this emotion of belonging to something and everyone wants, rather NEEDS, to belong to something that feels like it has meaning. That is by far the most interesting thing I heard in this video because it is so true. Although I never heard of the term "cult brand," I can assure it does exist.

Overall the video was very insightful, but created a very dramatized view on advertisement. The world they laid out was advertising dominant and I don't see it that way at all. Maybe from a marketers eyes that is true, however I believe that only big cities are witnessing this advertising dominance and coming from a small city I can testify that it isn't that bad. I don't feel like it's dominating anything, or maybe that's the point the video was trying to make? 

Rise and Fall of the Business World

Tom on left, Kaleil on right

Imagine being so excited about starting up your own business then watching it fall apart, It's probably the most disheartening thing to watch. In a documentary based around two friends, Tom and Kaleil, you'll see a business they worked so hard to build come crashing down. It hits you with the reality of having your own company by displaying all the hardships that come with it, I learned a lot about trying to build your own business from the ground up. Even though I never had the desire to do such a thing, I for sure don't have any hopes of doing so after watching this. This is not to discourage anyone but to simply bring a realistic perspective to it.

The Rise

I don't know the first thing about building a company let alone keeping one afloat. With that being said, in the beginning of this documentary they are discussing a name for the company and the CEO, Kaleil, is having a really difficult time in deciding what name he wants to go with. I realized from the start that building a company takes critical thinking and time; even down to the company name is crucial. It made me realize the importance of this "rising" process, from them having to pitch the ideas to multiple people in order to get funding to coming out with a name and sticking to it, every last detail is important.

Even in the rise of the company there was hardships, they continuously got shut down and one man that Kaleil spoke about was particularly harsh. He shut them down for dumb reasons like presenting documents instead of a computer and he felt like they had to live on the West Coast to build an "internet business." I learned that your idea for a business could be brilliant, not saying Tom and Kaleil's was that because I thought it was rather good but didn't see the necessity; however, you could can get shut down for pointless reasons.

I enjoyed when Tom and Kaleil had their break through because in a sense I felt like I was going through the process with them. When they finally got the company started up I was excited to see where they'd go with it, but I wasn't expecting what happened to happen. The people who were helping run the company started dropping like flies.

The Fall

In the end, the company kind of fell apart. Kaleil was the only one left basically. Something that concerned me about the fall of the company is the fact that they had over 200 employees working for them and if the company falls apart, so do those employers. A lot of them would be out of a job thanks to a being with the wrong company at the wrong time. I know these employers probably had some sort of credentials to work there and they'd be able to find another job easily, but it'd still be a scary thing to go through. I wouldn't the blame on anyone I think they were just trying to run a company in the time of a crisis. 

I found their story interesting and learned a lot about what can go wrong in building a business and how personal relationships can be affected. Like I said, in the end Khalil was left standing alone and his friendship with Tom was rocky after knowing each other for so many years. Not to mention Kaleil's love life which appeared in the documentary a few times. What I took from this was, don't start a business with a best friend.

Prof Larson's Presentation

Professor Larson's Speech

I thoroughly enjoyed Prof Larson's presentation in class on Thursday. I already take one of Prof Larson's classes this semester and I'm learning so much already, for example, we had to create a powerpoint presentation and I used features on there that I didn't know existed. I also had my first experience with photoshop because of her class. Due to that previous experience with her, her presentation automatically sparked my interest in other classes she is teaching. As a comm major, all comm classes seem interesting, but specifically I'd like to take her Motion Graphics class, the student's project she showed was pretty cool. She also made me excited to see what other comm classes were available and which ones would help me with the career I want to go into. Overall it was a very informative presentation and perception of how wide the comm department really spreads.

Introducing Me

This is ME

Hi, my name is Nikki and I'm a Sophomore. I transferred to Shepherd from Potomac State College last Fall. I'm first generation in my family to go to college and, hopefully, finish. I'm originally from Martinsburg, WV and I'm a communications major. I hope to go into Public Relations and become a Social Media Manager for a cool organization. I work at the Shepherd Library so you'll probably always see me in there either studying or working at the front desk. I'm excited to see what I learn in this class this semester because being a comm major, naturally, I'm excited about any comm class I take.

The Internet's Cost of Free

The cost of free is a contradicting statement, how is something free if it has a cost? Well that just what the inter-webs is. I'm sure all of us noticed parts of the internet that were questionable; like why is there an advertisement for allergy medicine on your favorite blog site when you don't have allergies. It's just one way the internet redefines our privacy.

Privacy

You visit your favorite website, the one that you visit everyday, and on the side is an advertisement for a potential University that you never even thought about attending. However, you did search up a University that you were interested in the other day. This happens because, shocker, the internet tracks everything you do and creates ads that they feel will appeal to you based on things you've searched.

You can look at this as a cool, interesting asset of the internet, but what happens when they pull up your personal searches. This happened with an old lady, all of her AOL search queries were distributed and she wasn't even aware that people were keeping track of it.

There is no privacy when you're on the internet, everything you search and post is being monitored. Everything you do on the internet is being taken in and giving websites new ways to feed you advertisement without you even knowing.

Personal Space

In ways, we make it easier for our privacy to be invaded by the internet. Social media is a huge part of the internet in the 21st century. It's also a big part in putting all of our personal business out there; Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc are huge contributors to people putting out personal information. If they're monitoring your personal browser searches then what do you think they're doing with the personal information you're posting on your social media?

Example of oversharing on the internet

Along with privacy, personal space also doesn't exist on the internet. Just a simple picture you post can be seen by anyone, doesn't mean people are interested in seeing it, but they can. Also, once it's on the internet, it can't be deleted.

Who We Are

In a lot of ways the internet is shaping who we are today, instead of being consumers we are being consumed. I look at the internet as a business, although it's neat and handy it has become a market. We've become so consumed with it that we don't even mind that we're trading in our lives for the internet. That's the price we pay for the internet. Yes we can browse freely, however, we're paying for it mentally.

Connecting to the Internet or Dividing Humanity

Connecting through the Internet causing Division?

As I mentioned before, all of us across the world are connected through the web thanks to this thing called the "internet." The internet allows us to have access to knowledge and each other; it's a form of communication like we've never seen before. Everyone at least has the means to participate in online communication and the opportunity to express their thoughts.

In a political sense, the internet has made openness easier because it eliminates the fear of being judged; it's sort of anonymous. When you meet people on the internet, through these various forms of social media, that share the same views as you it opens up a discussion and builds a relationship with the person or people.

However, with shared views comes the oppose position aka people who don't agree with these views and it could cause a clash. Topics, such as politics, are a touchy subject on the internet, which is why such things like warfare can arise in the midst of internet communication. 

For example, Iran's riots after a presidential election that they felt was rigged. Because of the spread of information through Twitter, in which a user named "Oxfordgirl" played a big role in, the riots built quickly. 

It definitely relates to whats going on today, as I type this there are riots going on now due to the election of President Donald Trump. 

Ultimately, the internet brings us together because even though tragic events may occur, we're all going through the same thing. However, the division part comes in to play when views on political matters start to clash into each other and in the end causing us to fight each other. 

What does this mean for our future?

Internet is allowing people to filter their world view; and this is where the problem would lay in our near future. Internet is a quicker way to spread ideas, giving people a quicker and easier way access ideas that may be deceiving. This could blind people to reality since we're making the internet our main source for information and communication.

In a political sense, it can threaten single-handily harm a whole country, such as Estonias whose government system got hacked into. This ultimately caused and economic crisis for their country and all at the finger tips of....cyber bully's? 

Some may say the internet is even more dangerous than having weapons, it could be a weapon in its own. In the near future we can expect it to be used as such because while it does give us ALL a voice, doesn't mean ALL of our voices should be received. In the wrong hands, the internet can be damaging. But will internet advances change for the better or the worst? I just don't know.

The concept of the Web's Great Leveling of Humanity

How the Web can provide Great Leveling of Humanity

How many of you use the Web? Everyone does, we're using it right now. But what does it mean to be using "the web." You could be watching music videos on Youtube to using WebMD to figure out what your diagnosis is for your sore throat and slight cough. No matter what you are doing on the web, there is a great chance someone else either next door to you or 12,000 miles away from you is doing the same. Using the web to be entertained, get informed or share an opinion. This could be explained as the web's "great leveling of humanity." Everyone across the globe has equal access, equal voice and equal potential because of the web, it connects us all no matter what part of the world you reside.

How the concept has evolved since it's starting point

The web's original motive was to rebel against what people thought to be "normal' during the time it was created. People wanted a sort of resistant's to authority, a safe haven of sorts. The web was suppose to be a place where people could say/do whatever they wanted and not be penalized for it. The first website that allowed this was named "The Well" created by a man named Stewart Brand. It gave people a taste of the web and that's where Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler and other web outlets stemmed from. However, the web is known for much more than rebelling in today's society. It has become a bigger form of communication for today's world, while back then people still had a sense of personal communication. The web has become more spread than it ever was and it's taking over the society as a whole, so instead of putting the middle finger up to society as they did back when the web was being created, today it IS our society. It has evolved into much more than an outlet to express ourselves, sometimes we use it to define ourselves. And that's scary!