4_00 Persuasion

     Advertisements are everywhere, on the radio, the internet, on the side of the road, on t-shirts, you name it, and of course I am influenced by them like most other people. The thing to remember about advertising though is that the consumer still has a choice. I personally find that I am most influenced by an advertisement if they say or show an image of something that I was already thinking about or had thought about recently. For instance at lunch time if I hear an advertisement for a Café whether or not I planned to go there if I have no other particular place in mind I will most likely end up going to eat at the first place I hear about or see.
        Similarly the other day I saw an advertisement for a pair of shoes that I did not need or was particularly thinking about but when the advertiser said “A perfect gift for the holidays…” I was hooked. I did need to buy gifts. It is hard to distinguish between what we wanted before an ad comes on and what we decided to need afterwards. Producers rely on consumers money, that fuels every advertisement and commercial, because money makes the world go round.
         The diet trend has been around for longer than a while. The quickest, easiest, no change, no exercise, everyone has to be better. I am personally not swayed by diet commercials because I quite frankly don’t care about them and most are not realistic. Some people become desperate though and those advertisements are most likely to catch them at a time of doubt. Commercials and advertisers can only influence a consumer as much as they allow. We have to open the door and think the first thought and since most commercials don’t rely on logic or reason, rather feelings and emotions, all it takes is logic to prove them wrong.