Persuasion has a bad reputation because it’s associated with selling things to people, sometimes selling them things they don’t even want.
Shocking. Who would do such a thing?
The reality is that most of us spend a lot of time trying to persuade others, whether it’s asking your child to eat their greens, explaining to colleagues why your football team is better than their team, or justifying why that Chanel dress you’ve just bought is really worth every penny you spent on it.
Overtly or otherwise, we’re all trying to persuade. And just as virtually every conversational exchange involves persuasion, so it is with creativity. Yet mention the role of persuasion in creative work and just wait for the fireworks…
Nonetheless, persuasion can be a tool for good. When the artist Goya depicted the barbarities of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, for example, he was making a powerful anti-war statement. He was also employing persuasion.