The Age of Persuasion

Q. How many shows will there be this season?

This season we�re producing 20 fresh shows, which will air through June �09.

Q. Will there be an Age of Persuasion book?

A. We're so glad you asked. Right this very now, Terry and Mike are working on a book based on the Age of Persuasion series, for Knopf Canada. Publication is scheduled for October '09.

Q. What's the name of the A of P theme music?

A. We asked co-composer Ari Posner that very question, and he told us the title is- wait for it- "The A of P theme". Ari must be one of those "save it for the game" guys. With co-composer Ian Lefeuvre, Ari created the theme for "O'Reilly on Advertising" a few years back. For The Age of Persuasion they created a "son of" composition, and have modified it for each successive season

Q. I want to use The Age of Persuasion in my Media class. Are there plans for an AOP curriculum?

A. We love, love, love hearing from teachers. And yes, we�re looking into curriculum possibilities for The Age of Persuasion. For the moment, though, the book is our priority.

Q. Is it okay to stream episodes of AOP in my classroom?

A. Absolutely. Please do.

Q. I have an idea for an AOP episode. Okay, wait, that wasn't a question.

A. We'd love to hear it. You can either respond here, or pop over to our Age of Persuasion Facebook page and we'll discuss it.

Q. Technical question: how come the episode streaming cuts out, or stops completely?

A. Okay, welcome to the depths of our ignorance. Our friends at CBC are good enough to handle website matters for us, and offer this:
It's possible some will have trouble because they don't have the most recent version of Flash installed.  You can find out which version of Flash you have by visiting this page:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15507

Q. How can I find the text of the famous 'Do This or Die' ad you mentioned in the show?

A. The ad cited in our episode Do This or Die, was written by the wonderful Bob Levenson of the legendary 60's agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. Under an imposing all-caps headline "DO THIS OR DIE", the copy reads:

Is this ad some kind of trick?
No. But it could have been.
And at exactly that point rests a do or die decision for American business.

We in advertising, together with our clients, have all the power and skill to trick people.
Or so we think.
But we're wrong. We can't fool any of the people any of the time.
There is indeed a twelve-year-old mentality in this country; every six-year-old has one.
We are a nation of smart people.
And most smart people ignore most advertising because most advertising ignores smart people.
Instead we talk to each other. We debate endlessly about the medium and the message. Nonsense. In advertising, the message itself is the message.
A blank page and a blank must be the truth. For if we play tricks with the truth, we die.

Now. The other side of the coin. Telling the truth about a product demands a produce that's worth telling the truth about. Sadly, so many products aren't. So many products don't do anything better. Or anything different. So many don't work quite right. Or don't last. Or simply don't matter. If we also play this trick, we also die. Because advertising only helps a bad product fail faster. No donkey chasses the carrot forever. He catches on. And quits. That's the lesson to remember. Unless we do, we die. Unless we change, the tidal wave of consumer indifference will wallop into the mountain of advertising and manufacturing drivel. That day we die. We'll die in our marketplace. On our shelves. In our gleaming packages of empty promises. Not with a bang. Not with a whimper. But by our own skilled hands.

-Doyle Dane Bernbach Incorporated