Otman Belkouteb
Journal Entry #5
Throughout the book we have learned more and more about persuasion, but the second to last chapter is where the power of persuasion is truly seen. We constantly encounter advertisements that persuade us to change our attitude or initiate a response. According to Perloff (2014), persuasion is a powerful tool—one that has strong effects on society, and one that is used by companies to raise profits. The power of persuasion can be seen in the simplest commercials, think of the last fast food commercial you saw, did it not trigger a response and if it didn 't, it likely will when you see that restaurant. In my previous journal I have brought up the controversy on whether persuasion is a tool or a weapon, and I have …show more content…
"Look outside your window, you see that empty parking space? That is where my car used to be before I sold it. Why did I sell it? I sold it, because I had to pay my lawyer. Why did I have to pay my lawyer you ask? I was caught driving under the influence. Oh, and my girlfriend left me because she doesn 't want to date someone who doesn 't have a car. This message was sponsored by the National Awareness Association" (PSA). This isn 't the only commercial of its kind, we are constantly fed persuasive information through several forms of media (Perloff, 2014), everyday we are bombarded with commercials that persuade us to purchase a product or trigger a particular response. That Public Service Announcement reinforces or creates an attitude for someone, and it does so implicitly. What do I mean by this? Commercials, even if we are not consciously paying attention, are absorbed by our subconscious mind (Perloff, 2014).. Ever wonder why you can recognize almost every fast food logo you see? Your subconscious mind played a role in registering those logos from commercials, experiences, etc. Personally, I do not think that it is entirely unethical to market or advertise, only because we do this with our peers, friends, and strangers. We tend to market ourselves, sometimes putting on a mask that isn 't entirely true, meaning what we do day to day is …show more content…
In class we discussed various health campaigns that we have seen and whether we deemed them effective or ineffective. Perloff (2014) states that health campaigns are not the only focus, especially in the U.S, where we have various political campaigns. Perloff (2014) becomes very analytical when referring to campaigns, he discusses diffusion theory, social marketing, effects, macrosocial pictures, etc. Health campaigns are often effective and convincing because they tend to relate to the average individual, but they do tend to use one common attribute, that being fear. In the PSA I mentioned previously fear was used as the attitude changer/inducer, we see this with antismoking commercials, anti-fast food commercials, and anti-drugs commercials. Now why is it fear is constantly used to change or motivate an attitude? Perloff (2014) states that a jolt of fear can be used to get individuals to rethink dangerous behaviors and is often a motivator. Is it unethical to use fear? I am not too sure about that, but when it comes to health campaigns, I feel that the message is usually the truth and fear is just a bystander of a foreseeable truth. Only in the case of health campaigns would I say fear as a result of truth can be used
Journal Entry #5
Throughout the book we have learned more and more about persuasion, but the second to last chapter is where the power of persuasion is truly seen. We constantly encounter advertisements that persuade us to change our attitude or initiate a response. According to Perloff (2014), persuasion is a powerful tool—one that has strong effects on society, and one that is used by companies to raise profits. The power of persuasion can be seen in the simplest commercials, think of the last fast food commercial you saw, did it not trigger a response and if it didn 't, it likely will when you see that restaurant. In my previous journal I have brought up the controversy on whether persuasion is a tool or a weapon, and I have …show more content…
"Look outside your window, you see that empty parking space? That is where my car used to be before I sold it. Why did I sell it? I sold it, because I had to pay my lawyer. Why did I have to pay my lawyer you ask? I was caught driving under the influence. Oh, and my girlfriend left me because she doesn 't want to date someone who doesn 't have a car. This message was sponsored by the National Awareness Association" (PSA). This isn 't the only commercial of its kind, we are constantly fed persuasive information through several forms of media (Perloff, 2014), everyday we are bombarded with commercials that persuade us to purchase a product or trigger a particular response. That Public Service Announcement reinforces or creates an attitude for someone, and it does so implicitly. What do I mean by this? Commercials, even if we are not consciously paying attention, are absorbed by our subconscious mind (Perloff, 2014).. Ever wonder why you can recognize almost every fast food logo you see? Your subconscious mind played a role in registering those logos from commercials, experiences, etc. Personally, I do not think that it is entirely unethical to market or advertise, only because we do this with our peers, friends, and strangers. We tend to market ourselves, sometimes putting on a mask that isn 't entirely true, meaning what we do day to day is …show more content…
In class we discussed various health campaigns that we have seen and whether we deemed them effective or ineffective. Perloff (2014) states that health campaigns are not the only focus, especially in the U.S, where we have various political campaigns. Perloff (2014) becomes very analytical when referring to campaigns, he discusses diffusion theory, social marketing, effects, macrosocial pictures, etc. Health campaigns are often effective and convincing because they tend to relate to the average individual, but they do tend to use one common attribute, that being fear. In the PSA I mentioned previously fear was used as the attitude changer/inducer, we see this with antismoking commercials, anti-fast food commercials, and anti-drugs commercials. Now why is it fear is constantly used to change or motivate an attitude? Perloff (2014) states that a jolt of fear can be used to get individuals to rethink dangerous behaviors and is often a motivator. Is it unethical to use fear? I am not too sure about that, but when it comes to health campaigns, I feel that the message is usually the truth and fear is just a bystander of a foreseeable truth. Only in the case of health campaigns would I say fear as a result of truth can be used