The Persuaders

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

I would say I've been bombarded with advertising my entire life, and the question shouldn't be whether it's too much, too little, or just right, it should be whether I feel uncomfortable with the advertising in itself, not how much it is. I find advertising with things I think should be non-profit like politics and prescription medication disturbing, mainly because they are incredibly filled with half truths and lies, and it makes our society as a whole less intelligent and knowledgeable. The only reason we see much more advertising today is that it takes a lot more to get through to us. In a lot of ways we're like cockroaches. If you use enough bug spray on cockroaches, they'll become immune. It's the same way when advertisers bombard us with advertisements- we become immune to them as well. It therefore takes more and creative ads to get our attention.


What surprised you in the descriptions of how much demographic information marketers have about potential customers? What kinds of information would you be willing to share about yourself or your family in order to: enter a contest? Get a discount? Get online? Get a cell phone? Use a credit card? Would you be willing to reveal your name, address and phone number? What music you listen to or your favorite snacks? How much you earn? What medications people in your family take? What kinds of information would you want to keep private and why?

What surprised me was how they put all sorts of information together- census data, credit card statements, online surveys, etc and are able to separate Americans into a few hundred niches/demographics for advertisers and politicians to use to their advantage. They have much more information about each and every one of us then most people I think know.
I have no problem with companies taking my information as long as it is done anonymously. This way companies and politicians can actually figure out what I want, as opposed to trying to figure out what I want based on other people or focus groups, etc.

An example of a company that takes our information is Google. Through the use of cookies they develop a search that is customized based on your past searches. This helps you get better search results, helps Google figure out new ways to improve the experience, and give advertisers a way of knowing exactly what I want.

The only information I would not be willing to give is if the information is not anonymous. If it isn't anonymous, anyone can be able to search and find information about me. This can hurt getting a job in the future, as well as ruin personal relationships with people.

The Myth of Photographic Truth

Here is a cropped image:

I cropped this photo to make the image appear as just an ordinary billboard on a street corner


This is the original photograph:

The second billboard that was originally in the photo gives the image a (hilarious) new meaning. Placing a McDonald's advertisement next to a childhood obesity billboard or vice versa, when McDonalds is often targeted as being a cause for childhood obesity is an ironic and therefore amusing image to take in. Obviously by cropping this image, I was able to take out the ironic social commentary and make an innocent image. This shows that no photograph is truly, truth.

Extra Medium Collage

This is a collage for the medium which is the iPhone/ipod Touch application store. The content of the app store is simply-applications. The message is more important. The app store allows any utility, application, game, phone, email, browser, tools, etc to be brought on the go on multiple devices, connected to the internet, and bringing back the social aspect of technology with applications that require multiple iphone users to be in the same room.

Photoshop As The Medium

Anything that is an extention of ourselves used to communicate in someway is considered a medium. Therefore, Photoshop is a medium. The content of this medium is it is a software program used for photo/image manipulation/production. The message of this product is that it allows anyone with a computer and this program to do high level professional image and photo manipulation and production. The wide use of this an similar types of software as a society impact have made people more suspicious in the validity of any photograph due to the ability in photoshop to manipulate photos in realistic ways. This is also a message.

Questions + Update to Image

In my latest update to the collage I played around with some artistic effects to some of my images as well as playing around with 3D. I wanted to give the collage more of a scrapbook feel, as opposed to the random placement of images before. Also I wanted to make it seem as there was a flow so I made the image that is supposed to represent the content as an arrow pointed to the message coming from the medium.

I have some questions in regards to 3D manipulation. I tried making the digg website into a cylinder shape so as to get the image in a curvy 3D shape, but I wasn't about to get rid of the rest of the cylinder. My other question would just be I feel like there's more I can do with the collage, but I can't think of anything more creative to add to it. then I have already. Any suggestions?

Medium Collage

The medium I chose was the website digg.com. As a user-generated website, the content is made by the users who use the website. With digg.com, the content specializes in news in the form of text, image, and video. This content is voted on, and the news that has the most "diggs" makes it to the front page. The message of this website is simply that with an internet enabled device, any individual can take part in deciding what's the most important and interesting news for all to know.

Three New Mediums

Google Docs

iPhone/iPod Touch App Store

digg.com