Joaquim Pedro de Andrade's "A Linguagem da Persuasão" ("The Language of Persuasion") revolves around the industry of advertising and its
effects on people's lives. Ferreira Gullar narrates this short documentary presenting the countless products available at that time (the vast majority
of brands don't even exist anymore) and it shows the intended effect to cause an impact on consumers. You don't need to be an expert in the field to
know those things but back in the 1970's those kind of projects were specially designed to inform audiences.
I liked the movie since it presents a realistic and balanced view of things, with a minimum criticism on advertising and the publicity
industry and what they cause of people. We understand the constant explosion of commercials thrown at us on television (let's consider the time this
was made), it's a war on viewers and consumers always making us to want bigger, better, faster and more, and we are easily seduced by the things we
don't actually need - sometimes we do. The evaluation and criticism of that industry is destined to us, and we must think to ourselves. I honestly
don't like all that fuzz since 90% of the time is related to things we don't want and aren't all so interesting (and even a film buff like myself I
usually tend to skip movie trailers whenever I'm off the theater, specially in the current era since they basically show the whole movie).
What comes as strange and one-sided in a certain way is that the movie seem to show the advertising destined to men and how products and their
effect on them, how they need some product to attract women and such; but the movie doesn't give an alternate version, the view from women. It's too
simplistic and women should be included; and children even more. And that's just my thoughts about it. 8/10.
