The Persuaders...

I thought The Persuaders was very enlightening as to how advertising & marketing is done. As a professional photographer & photojournalist, I am seldom involved in the 'sales' aspect of a job....unless it's a story/feature. What I mean by story/feature is that I always meet with the writer (and editor, if possible) before the story to get the 'vision' of how the story will run. For the most part, it makes no sense for me to shoot photos of someone reading a book when the story will be about how they are missing their feet...make sense? Anyway, I thought Bob Garfield, of Ad Age, was very straightforward in his analysis of the latest techniques of reasoning behind the examples we saw in the video. I understood it to be that much is becoming over-analyzed and that the line between advertising and psychology is being blurred. I'm not sure what the statistics show...and I really don't care...I just thought Garfield made great sense. Also, I loved the (hair)piece on Frank Luntz. He's a frequent contributor regarding politics & polling on FOX news (get over it) and it gave me some background on him. Even though the video portrays him as a right-winger, he never comes across as that in his focus group analysis on FOX. Regarding his influence on current political jargon, i.e. 'War on Terror', 'Death Tax', etc., so what? Come on, like both parties don't have their own talking points & scripted slogans? The best part was the segment with Clotaire Rapaille, He didn't buy into the babble of any of the previous folks. He didn't have to. He just does his research & analysis of what has proven to work for his clients...period. And it works!!! (Side note responding to what the 'person in the back' said about Rapaille's position, techniques(?) in the industry and his extravagant, 'superfluous' surroundings. What works for him, works for him...period. If he has a proven track record, what difference does it make? The clients pay fair-market price for what he offers. Imagine if he showed up on a skatebaord, shouted non-sense and were to be condescending. How long do you think he would be in business?) Anyway, it was very educational...