Summary
Branding: Laurie Taylor explores the 'persuasion industries' and their role in creating modern consumer society. How has their use of an emotional model of brand communication, whether in political campaigning or product advertising, transformed our understanding of the rational consumer? He's joined by Steven McKevitt, Visiting Professor in Brand Communication, at Leeds Beckett University. Also, how 'branding' can desensitize far right consumers to extremist ideas. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Associate Professor of Education and Sociology at American University, discusses her study into the ways in which extremism is going mainstream in Germany through clothing brands laced with racist and nationalist symbols.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.2 | I'm Laurie Taylor and this is a Radio 4 podcast for thinking aloud. |
| 0:40.4 | Together with some good old boys, I'll be watching the progress of Liverpool in the Champions League |
| 0:45.3 | we'll all be wearing red shirts as we watch. Nothing wrong with wearing such a symbol of |
| 0:50.8 | allegiance or is there? Find out. |
| 0:55.0 | No, look, look, if you look very carefully at this advert, look at the arrangement of the ice |
| 1:02.1 | cubes in the whiskey glass. Look, look at the arrangement of the ice cubes in the whiskey glass. |
| 1:03.7 | Look, look, they spell out sex, S.C. X. |
| 1:07.1 | Don't you see it? It's sort of, it's subliminal. |
| 1:11.8 | You know, there really was no stopping me after I first read Vance Packard's book |
| 1:17.4 | The Hidden Persuaders back in the late 50s. I could find sexual references |
| 1:22.2 | and erotic imagery in an ad for a U-Bank carpet sweeper. |
| 1:26.5 | But more than that, I also shared Packard's moral contempt for the very practice of advertising. |
| 1:33.0 | But what made this Puritan stance so difficult to maintain was the extraordinary |
| 1:38.0 | popularity of the new television commercials. |
... |
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