Hitler, Master of Rhetoric

I enjoyed the presentation about Hitlers speech. After reading several books involving coercion, neuro linguistic programming, and body language, I remember Hitler being mentioned many times using of these persuasive tactics. Hitler didn't use overly complex and flowery messages, he kept his messages very simple and focused. Instead of mentioning multiple issues he focused on a select few topics for his entire speech. He used a great deal of repitition, persistently covering these points over and over. Instead of addressing multiple facets and sides of an issue he chose to take a very black and white approach in order to promote zealotry. He also heavily emphasized body language, spending hours practicing hand gestures for his speeches. This is the first class I've been in that analyzed Hitlers speaking techniques, which is odd considering him being one of the most infamous villianous world leaders of all time. One would think that his propaganda techniques would be heavily emphasized in high school and college world history classes. Those who cannot learn from history...

Time Constraint Limited Depth of Publishing Presentation

I never had a desire to write my own book before so the thought of hearing from a publisher never really piqued my interest. He arrived fairly late so by the time we started getting into the in depth details about his profession it was already time to move onto the writing exercise. As I remember we had roughly 20 minutes to write and review our pieces. After about 10 minutes we started reviewing and he touched on a few pieces lightly and the time quickly ran out. The fact that we didn't have time to really analyze the writing exercises limited the active participation aspect that was intended for the exercise. I wasn't that interested in being a spot news writer for the local news industry either, but the KOIN speaker was very interesting, maybe due to the fact that she worked in an industry basking in the lime light. I'm sure publishing can be equally fascinating and relevant to an average college student but I didn't feel very engaged in this particular presentation.

Advertising Mirrors and Molds

In Douglas Rushkoff's book "Coercion" he dedicates a chapter solely to advertising. He mentions how branding began in the very literal sense of branding cattle. Branding cattle provided means of tracing cattle back to the owner of the cattle. Manufacturers then adopted the practice for similar reasons, being able to identify the original source and additionally enabling customers to gauge quality and establish loyalty if satisfied. Much has changed since then and advertising has incorporated many psychological ploys to allure often unsuspecting customers into irrationally purchasing mediocre or even subpar products.

One ad campaign that fascinated me was Mike's Hard Lemonade advertisements. Sweet fruity drinks have always been considered "girly" drinks. Mikes Hard Lemonade ads attempted to buck the trend and directly target the male market. The particular commercial I remember involved a lumberjack accidentally chopping his leg off and non-chalantly responding to the event while drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade. The trend associating sweet drinks with feminine tastes was deeply in bedded so they threw all the testosterone they could into the campaign by using burly men performing blue collar work. Being an ex-bartender, none of my patrons or friends seems to have bought into it and Mikes Hard Lemonades are still considered girly drinks, but it's interesting nonetheless to see advertisers trying such a daunting attempt to aggressively mold public perception.

Advertising is obsessed in discovering, replicating, and ideally creating a trend. It's heavily colored in fashion and entertainment making it an edgy branch of business as opposed to other more traditional fields such as accounting, finance, and management. In a steadily growing consumerist society advertising has become not only a mirror but a window into the human psyche.