Persuasion was defined by Simmons as “human communication designed to influence the autonomous judgments and actions of others” (Simons, 2001, pg. 7). This concept draws on the ancient greek idea of rethorics, the art of discourse (expressing ideas to an audience in order for them to decide their opinion about something). Persuasion is something we encounter all the time, it is not just limited to propaganda or commercials but is an inherent part of human communication. Persuasion works in a way that leads the other to believe that he is doing the decision on his own, not under threats or positive outcomes directly presented to him. It predisposes rather than imposing. To clarify that idea, he presented it next to inducement and coercion:
- In Persuasion, the persuader is rather indirect and does not claim to have agency in a situation
- In Inducements, positive consequences are promised in return for fulfilling an action in the interest of the person who induces
- In Coercion, negative consequences are posed as a threat by the person who coerces
Simons presents two different approach to study persuasion: the behavioural approach and the critical studies approach. The behavioural approach studies it as a science through well conducted experiments whereas the critical studies applies more to studying a media text like a novel or a movie and the ideas embedded into it through the tale being told.
While using persuasion with bad intentions can have ethical consequences, like manipulation would. Understanding persuasion is a way to understand our relation to others and how people establish relations of power (through specific discourses persuading us).
Yet he presents advertisings as today’s most interesting object for a rethorical analysis, as it is always trying to persuade an audience to do something in various ways. Means of persuasion can change through time depending on the available technologies and trends (commercials try to be more subtle than they used to be, they are short movies with a whole script rather than someone facing the camera telling that “this is a very good product”. Means of persuasion need to reinvent themselves to be efficient.
A way to reinvent themselves brands have found on the internet is native advertising. When on buzzfeed for example, some of the articles proposed on the side (amongst real ones) are sponsored content. If the user looks carefully he might see the information, but native advertising strategy resides in the idea of being hidden , looking like articles presenting intriguing or funny informations not directly related to their product, they match the form and function of the platform upon which it appears, instead of trying to distinct itself and aesthetically get the eye of the reader, they expect him to be bored and wander from useless article to useless article. Yet they always manage to incorporate the product as a relevant thing to talk about. While, once on the page, the sponsored aspect of it is quite ovious, the persuasive means are quite manipulative.
In this case, the rhum company Captain Morgan placed an ad through a buzzfeed article: it is presented in the same layout as any other articly from the site, except that the author is replaced by the brand. And the first fact the reader gets to know is that Captain Morgan was an actual captain. While one might not care about the commercial content and keep reading the article, he might end in a sponsored content loophole where pop-ups and ads are hidden in symbols allowing the user to see the following thing unkown about a captain.
See here:
The whole season 19 of South Park focused on the developping power of ads and sponspored content on the internet: hypothetysing that ads were developping life of their own and controlling us with companies buying our online data or even our pictures we blindly give to facebook or other social networks. A much recommended watch.
Bibliography:
•Simons, H.W. (2001). The Study of Persuasion. In: H.W. Simons with J. Morreale & B.E. Gronbeck, Persuasion in Society (pp. 3-24), Thousand Oaks: Sage.
•Sonesson, G. (2013). Two strands of rhetoric in advertising discourse. International Journal of Marketing Semiotics, 1(1), 6-24.