Dear FRONTLINE,

The comments made by the Luntz fellow, Republican consultant, were quite disturbing. To smugly spin global warming into the benign phrasing of "climate change", it was almost too much to endure considering the impact of non-action for our future generations. And to watch our elected leaders take the bait and spew these engineered terms repeatedly at the national level made me wonder where the public outrage is about everything? It seems to me the goal of market research and messaging is to numb us into compliance and to prey on human weaknesses rather than enhance our strengths as a people and consumers. Madison Avenue devours the White House - what's next, nuclear fallout is really an "extended winter precipitation"? You should be ashamed of yourself Mr. Luntz - as well as the politicians that buy into your falsehoods.

Michele Matthews
Houston, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

RE: consumer segregation in marketing. Douglas Rushkoff believes that we as consumers will reject segregation because we would rather be drawn together with other people (see Forum section of site). Maybe so as consumers, but do we on religious and political levels?

The segregation techniques employed by the political parties have produced a nation as divided as it ever was. "United we stand, Divided we fall"

The sad thing is that we really have as much in common as we do differences, but the consumer culture bombards us with individuality. And I wonder how far the segregation will go.

Matt Ferguson
Dallas, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your program reminded me of M. T. Anderson's excellent book, "Feed." It's about a dystopian future where narrowcasting has reached disturbing levels--much to the happiness of marketers. In the book, people lose their ability to distinguish advertising from reality, and that reality is very, very bleak.

I'm disturbed by how closely our current reality seems to be reflected by this work of fiction. And I'm motivated to try to discover something I can do about it.

Provo, UT

Dear FRONTLINE,

One of the most astute segments of the persuaders was the segment on political persuasion. Consumer and B-to-B marketers are constrained by regulation and the limits of the products they're selling from misleading in a vicious way. Tapping into the reptilian brain or mining archetypes to find ways to connect brands to consumer desire may appear Machiavellian, but--as Bob Garfield pointed out--it's still a hit and miss affair, and probably always will be. People seek comfort, or adventure, or love; if they can catch a whiff of any of those things in my product, everybody's happy. But the freedom to lie in a political campaign, combined with the general vacuousness of the candidates, the high stakes, and the improving sciences of research, segmentation and persuasion, have made a farce of the electoral process, which is now operated by cynics at the command of zealots.

Bob Fiddler
Annapolis, MD

Dear FRONTLINE,

To me, the most frightening reality behind all of this marketing philosophy/practice is that the people behind it seem to be perfectly happy with the fact that that are attempting to manipulate people at their most vunerable point. Reguardless of whether or not these tactics work or will work in the future seems insignificant compared to the impulse of the powerful to control the powerless at any cost.

This is much like an except I read in my western civ class about an ancient Athenian man who saw the flawed tendencies of the early democractic society. He observed that politics were more and more framed around the opinions ans actions of the most basest levels of society. The whole system became a slave to the intellect of the most uneducated and he noted that the poeple in power were not the "best men" for the job, but simply the ones who maipulated the general populous the best.

I'm not claiming that there is any polical or economic system that could put a stop to this aspect of the civilized world. In fact, I don't believe that things will get better, but worse. It makes sense that in a "peaceful society" such as ours that the struggle for power is not a matter a physical might, but of intellectual superiority. As long as the "peaceful" people of our coutry can be lulled into complacency, the worlds big players can continue to reap violence on the world abroad. This situation will not improve, I don't think it has ever changed.

Joe Montanaro
Chicago, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

After we buy mountains of unnecessary goods. After we cast our votes for politicians who serve neither our interests nor the common good. After our convictions have been massaged into compliant goo. And after money and virtue and strength are gone . . . What then?

Bruce Oren
La Porte, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

It's interesting to read people's reactions to tonight's Frontline show, The Persuaders. I'm an MBA student, concentrating in Marketing, and whether you are willing to admit it or not, this show is most definately on target. The messages may not work well with informed folks like those who wrote letters, but for the average American it is not really that difficult to "induce the person to persuade himself." Of course I teach my children, ages 20, 14, and 6, about the powers of marketing. They say I've ruined life for them...it's more fun to be swept away in the excitement of a good persuasion!

T Perry
New Smyrna Beach, FL

Dear FRONTLINE,

I cannot believe that advertising has gotten so incredibly scientific in it's search for consumers and yet can still insult my intelligence so completely.

I love the Bud ads, but I do not drink Bud. I will never buy car insurance from a company with a gecko as a spokesman, and I will chase any pollster off my property if they knock on my door thinking they know enough about me to show a personalized video.

As an individual, I make my own decisions, purchase my goods, and buy my gas (except Exxon, because I do hold a grudge) based on service, quality, and economy. I do not feel I am in the minority.

Advertising is a scam that raises prices on everything for all consumers. Paying some "Guru" to tell you that SUV's are about being Macho? Send me a check!

Dave Upton
Russellville, Alabama

Dear FRONTLINE,

Dear Frontline, I really enjoyed this program. It seems as if advertisers have been moving deeper into our brains as time goes by. Advertising used to be about facts, and words that ended with "er" like stronger, brighter etc. Now the target is our primitive brain, our primitive emotions of fear, security and need. I wonder, with a little fear, where they will go next.

Juan Lopez
Fort Valley , GA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Great program, describing how advertising is becoming so sophisticated that it creates a story to make a product become more than what it really is: just a thing. I can not believe that through psychology, anthropology, sociology and other ologys advertisers are luring us into buying products not necessary to meet our basic needs. Now products are symbols of status, wealth, power, fashion etc. We are being programmed into feeling that products, material things, are necessary to feel good about ourselves. It is crazy that we allow this to happen. I sometimes wonder how emotionally well adjusted we are in this country? Many years ago, being frugal was respected and considered a virtue, today, frugal is never mentioned, only what model car you drive or wine you drink or designer clothing you wear. Is the amount of wealth people have in this country really good for our well being?

Malden, Massachusetts

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you Frontline for a very informative, and maybe a little biased, program. I share the same biases, so no more mention of that.

As a new psychology major member, I was excited to see many of our class subjects (word associations, memory construction, the brain stem-or reptilian brain-and all the rest) put into applied examples. However, in response to Douglas Rushkoff's last statement posted on your forum, did not 2 economists just win the Nobel prize for hypothesizing that it is the supplier who actually creates the demand, and not the other way around? What would that mean? Hmmm

Olive Lorrain
New York City, N Y

Dear FRONTLINE,

We are now living in "1984" plus 20 years of improvements by "Big Brother". The amount of information on each of us, along with the slick and sleazy manipulation by those with the power and the money, means that our democracy and freedom are becoming only an illusion.

David Souers
Rhinebeck, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

In 1957, Vance Packard published a book entitled "The Hidden Persuaders". He documents the used of "motivational research" (M.R.) in both advertising and politics. This approach assumes that people are motivated by unconscious drives rather than rational thought. The theory of M.R. is derived from the psychological work of Freud. The application of M.R. originated with military propaganda (both Allied and Fascist) during World War II.

The work of men like Clotaire Rapaille is nothing more than a rehash of the motivational research done in the 50's. I believe you could have done the viewers a great service by placing this issue in historical context.

Brad Clark
Hubbard Lake, MI

Dear FRONTLINE,

We're not a nation of "morons" we're a nation coming to grips with our diversity and sorting out what is really important in our many communities. Materialism has been ascendant but shows sign of waning in favor of experience (slic,well-marketed experiences but hey it's a start).

Socialism has had a strong run over the last 70 years due to the distinction without difference in our politics. The ever increasing diversity of, and outlets for, information seems to be resulting in a serious questioning of that trend and a new focus not on party, but on philosophy.

Far from being stupid, I think our diversity challenges us, and our media allows us to examine (hopefully skeptically)issues from politics to purchases with more information and with the option to be more thoughtful than at any point in human history. Yes there's a lot of bad info, but we have the choice.

Drew Little
Virginia Beach, VA

Dear FRONTLINE,

After watching The Persuaders I became precisely aware of just how superfluous modern-day advertising really is. Why can't products and services stand on their own merits without having artificial emotions surreptitiously attached to them? Imagine how much more inexpensive products would be without companies having to shell out big bucks to the likes of Clotaire Rapaille, who do nothing more than play head games with the public.

Walter Vargas
Parma, OH