Wyatt Mace
Freshman Composition
Final Essay Draft 2 With Revisions
12/3/2012
Word Count: 832
Intro To Argument In today’s day and age, our economy is run solely on the consumer rather than the producer. As time goes on, people become more and more selfish and tend to buy things they do not need. The only problem with that is half the time consumers are falling victim of scams and tricks played out by advertisers. Marketers use many different methods to manipulate people to buy their product, and for the most part they are successful. The video called merchants of cool was about MTV connecting with teens and trying to create relationships with them through interviews. They connect with the teens and sometimes even pay them for these interviews to find out what they think is cool and what trends are in at the time. They create what is called a feedback loop, in which they get feedback from teens in what they are interested in, and mirror that image through media. For example, MTV saw how kids were acting on spring break such as getting drunk, going to the beach, and acting sexually inappropriate, so they mirrored that image by creating shows that had kids do these exact things. The persuaders was about how companies use their brand names to create an emotional connecting with consumers, and to make people feel good about buying their product. They use words, phrases and sayings to give people an emotional connection to that product that makes them feel like they have to have it. What this does is it makes consumers feel like it gives them a certain identity, like they fit into some kind of special group of people who use that particular product. Another example is in the video, they interviewed people in an attempt to find out what words to use for a bread company that creates a certain emotion. They asked him what words best describe bread, how he feels when eating bread, and what words make bread sound enticing. Another thing that the persuaders do is they make sure their message zeros in on the right audience. They target large consumer groups like teens under 18 because not only do they spend their own money, but they also still have the luxury of using their parents’ money. The Brought to You Buy ads and Semiotic ads were about how advertisers persuade consumers to buy their product by making associations between their product and pleasurable experiences, much like the Persuaders. They use like things like social superiority and sex to lure buyers in, and use certain pictures or messages to persuade the viewer into interpreting the advertisement in a certain way. They also target certain desires that people have through these ads. For example, AXE Body Spray made commercials that showed men using