The Persuaders

Overall I found The Persuaders to be a very insightful documentary that presented several different takes on the marketing industry.  It covered everything  from heart-warming success stories to heart-breaking failures.  It's all about what the consumer wants and not what the advertising agency wants.  If you know how to play off the consumer's interests and needs in an effective manner then you will have a good chance of being successful in the advertising world.

One of the most interesting aspects that I observed in the film was the part that focused on Song Airlines.  It almost caught me off guard because I thought the film was going to show success story after success story, but Song proved just the opposite.  Song was created in the early 2000s.  It was a subsidiary of Delta Airlines and it was essentially created as a low-cost competitor of Jet Blue.  Delta wanted to revolutionize the air travelling experience for everyone.  I found it interesting because their ad campaign was very different for an airline.  They began soon after 9/11, so they needed to have a really good advertising strategy if they wanted to bring in a large number of travelers.  Their ad campaign targeted women and offered healthy organic food options as well as alternative entertainment options.  They hired Andy Spade to run the majority of their ad campaign.  I found their ad campaign to be very out of place and ineffective.  Their advertisements were more of art form and it was very confusing.  It seemed like it had nothing to do with the flight experience.  I'm sure the consumers also found it confusing.  They were already trying to compete with giants in a very unfortunate time for the airline industry.  The commercials were heart-warming and I could understand, to an extent, where they were coming from but it proved to be an ineffective strategy.  Eventually it all fell apart and the Song fleet disappeared.  It was short-lived, but no doubt in interesting attempt in the airline industry.