Public Relations and Advertising

Public Relations and Advertising

            Every year those involved with ads, marketing research, and consultation spend a lot of resources while trying to persuade consumers. Persuasion, in this case, is used to win the trust and have a positive image on the products and services from different companies. The Persuaders FRONTLINE shows how the culture of advertising and marketing influences how the Americans use their products and decide to purchase such products (The Persuaders, 9). The documentary draws from observers and experts of public relations and advertising to demonstrate how information is delivered to a specific segment of the market. FRONTLINE examines how the persuasive industries are using a lot of funds through public relations and advertising. The documentary also focuses on how marketers have developed ways to integrate messages with the emotional attachment of the audience.

The advertisers and marketers are currently facing pressure towards innovation and changes in the needs of the consumers. Persuasive industries have adopted different strategies to attract the attention of consumers. In the documentary, the primary focus is on how various sectors and individuals use emotional advertising to get consumers to purchase. Several ads are used by people to share the information on goods, and through the development of feelings, consumers are encouraged to buy (The Persuaders, 16). Usually, individuals depend on feelings more than the details while making decisions on brands. Emotional focus to ads is very influential on the target of a person to buy than the knowledge of the ad. The truth with consumption is that buyers are sometimes not driven by logical solutions. Every buyer has their way to reason since emotions are the foundation on which we base our buying decisions. “What consumers want now is an emotional connection—they want to be able to connect with what’s behind the brand, what’s behind the promise,” as reported by Kevin Roberts (The Persuaders, 15). The documentary has presented the differences between public relations and advertising. Public relations can be used by the government to win over the interest of the public on specific issues. For example, politicians commonly use the concept of public relations to win over their voters. Advertising and public relations are used to influence the emotions of the audiences.

Emotional attachment to a particular product or activity by the interested party results in irrational decision making by the consumers. “Anxiety is giving way to a confidence that they will soon have access to the core emotional needs of nearly every American shopper and voter” (The persuaders, 26). Persuasive industries have hence changed their focus onto the emotions of their audience, and most of the ads are altered to meet the emotional needs of the intended parties. The persuasive industries are using billions of cash with an aim of developing new methods of integrating their messages to influence our feelings. Improved methods meant to understand the market segment has been adopted through the technique of public relations. Public relations is used to win the trust of the consumers so that they can be convinced that the message relayed is coming from a trusted source and conforms to the public needs. The question that we have to ask ourselves so far is, “what does the future hold for the marketers and advertisers? Soon, the advertiser will have to introduce better ways to attract the attention of the consumers (The Persuaders, 34). The advancement in technology and the changes in the demands calls for an immediate response from advertisement and public relations. Persuading the consumers through advertisement or persuading the citizens through public relations will have to consider delivering the right message to the right audience; otherwise, the emotional attachment of the audience will not be conforming to the message. As consumers are becoming more technical on the claims by the marketers, the persuasive industries must refine their methods to enhance the emotional attachment between the brand and the public.

Work Cited

The Persuaders. Persuasion Industries. November 9 2004. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/showspersuaders/