Marketplace the Hidden Persuaders: Marketing

¶ … Marketplace

The Hidden Persuaders: Marketing in the era of anti-marketing

According to John Searbrook's comments during the Hidden Persuaders, a PBS Frontline documentary: "MTV… [has] broken down the notion that there is culture of programming, on the one side, and marketing and advertising, on the other side" (Seabrook 2010). Seabrook suggests that the dominant metaphor today of media communication is that of a permeable membrane, a seamless and symbiotic flow between entertainment and advertisement. Today, even characters in sitcoms sip cans of soda as a part of artful product placement, and reality TV show contestants make prominent use of products promoted by sponsors.

The idea that a program must shift from a storyline to 'a word from our sponsors' is as old as the existence of television. However, the argument of the Hidden Persuaders is that marketing has grown more subtle than ever before, and more pervasive. The new generation of teen consumers has trouble distinguishing what is real and what is promoted by a corporation because of the deliberate design of advertisers. Our identities have become 'words from our sponsors' as we watch celebrities on reality TV shows demonstrate their 'coolness' by using certain brands and crafting a brand-based image.

In 2006 the journal Pediatrics reported that "the average young person views more than 3,000 ads per day on television (TV), on the Internet, on billboards, and in magazines. Increasingly, advertisers are targeting younger and younger children in an effort to establish 'brand-name preference' at as early an age as possible." Advertising is even present in school settings: "more than 200 school districts nationwide have signed exclusive contracts with soft drink companies...there more than 4,500 Pizza Hut chains and 3,000 Taco Bell chains in school cafeterias around the country (Pediatrics, 2006).

Not addressed in the documentary, but just as important is the role of virtual marketing to teens. For example, many products have created virtual, interactive 'worlds' online, spanning from Coca-Cola to Wells Fargo, where Internet users (usually teens) can create avatars and interact with online friends. While no product purchase is necessary, by becoming involved in an online community, teens develop positive brand associations (Hemp 2006). Although cutting edge technologically, this demonstrates how online advertising product placement is based upon an old technique. Its "premise is classical conditioning, wherein one's attitude toward a well-liked stimulus is transferred to an affectively neutral stimulus when the stimuli are joined…for example, the product placement hall of fame's cornerstone is Reese's Pieces…a new candy the sales of which jumped 70% within 3 months after release of the feature film E.T. In 1982" (Pompper & Choo 2004). Seeing a movie or interacting in a video game with friends is associated with a specific product.

Recently, the New York Times noted that even the act of spending itself has become a commodity, as promoted by banks. Despite the recent trend towards downsizing the extension of credit to individuals without full-time jobs, one bank released the Kardashian Kard, featuring the image of the popular reality TV stars. According to the creators of the Kard, the intended message was: "If I spend frivolously, I'll be glamorous like the Kardashians." Buying the product -- or simply buying anything, makes the card owner more like their teenage idols (Constantine 2010). And every time a user is seen charging with the card, much like every time he or she uses a certain type of cellphone, the user is 'branding' his or her identity -- and giving free advertising to the brand.

The fact that so many products are 'worn' in public (like cellphones) has been a boon for advertisers. Credit cards and cellular phones are always on a user's body. This makes them easier to sell, as they are always in view of other consumers' eyes. This visual ubiquity has also expanded the demographic of the group that covets them -- teens are getting credit cards, cellular phones are being marketed at elementary school-age children. Common aspects of identity that once were not branded -- credit cards and food -- now are no longer neutral objects. They become a way of 'making a statement' in the age of subtle marketing.

Younger people are widely reported to be more susceptible to product placement, manifested in the fact that "Coca-Cola reportedly paid Warner Bros. Studios $150 million for the global marketing rights to the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and nearly 20% of fast food restaurant ads now mention a toy premium in their ads" (Pediatrics, 2006). The lack of ability to accurately filter commercial messages has been linked to the spread of prescription drug abuse, obesity, and early alcohol and cigarette use. "In one study, the amount of TV viewed per week correlated with requests for specific foods and with [higher] caloric intake" (Pediatrics, 2006).

Ironically, although teens may be more susceptible to advertising, they are often more cynical in their attitude towards promotions -- although they seem to prefer subtle, hidden marketing, or marketing without overt advertising, teens are more apt to believe what is said in the media, as compared with adults. Teen media consumption habits also make them ideal for 'hidden' marketing. "Marketers know that young people have huge disposable incomes, but they are a hard-to-reach demographic because they read newspapers, listen to radio, and watch television at levels far below those of their parents. Furthermore, they are a stubborn demographic because many who do watch television use technologies to 'edit out' ads" (Pompper & Choo 2004). But the new hidden persuaders make this impossible because the advertisement is integrated into the television show -- or is a logo on the teen's t-shirt. Teens have become the advertisements themselves -- wearing t-shirts with graphics, carrying cellular phones with customized ring tones, using customized credit cards -- all bearing the logo of a product, the song of a celebrity, or a particular brand name.

Essentially, teens are often paying to market their favorite products. A second dominant metaphor for communication in modern times might be the 'sandwich board' -- teens are often unconsciously more fashionable versions of people using their bodies as billboards to proclaim advertising messages to the world. or, they are willingly saturating themselves in the brand online, when they feel they are merely harmlessly entertaining themselves, by playing games on a corporate website (Peattie 2007).

However, it is not only ordinary teens that are using their personal credibility marketing for free in subtle ways. The Hidden Persuaders, although a persuasive documentary, neglects to mention recent phenomenon like bloggers giving product reviews to items they have been given for free. "Marketing companies are keen to get their products into the hands of so-called influencers [bloggers] who have loyal online followings because the opinions of such consumers help products stand out amid the clutter, particularly in social media" (Joshi 2009). Bloggers are the best of all worlds for marketers. They are considered to be 'regular people' unlike celebrity spokespersons or actors, yet they have the credibility of an expert because of the niche they have carved out for themselves on their blogs, like a 'mommy blogger.' Bloggers have large, built-in audiences, and while not as widely-trafficked a venue as television, an Internet audience is self-segmented and targeted. Additionally, blogger-based social media advertising is much less costly than a national campaign.