Advertising Propaganda

Advertising invades every aspect of our modern lives. It is shoved upon us from every aspect of media. Internet, television, radio, movies, and even our streets seem to be centered on it. We are asked to buy, try, and consume the next best thing. While most things advertised are meaningful and can possibly be used to either help or make our lives better, we do not necessarily need it. Mostly what we are exposed to in advertising is propaganda, and to define it better, the authors of the book, “Propaganda and Persuasion” state propaganda as the following, “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.” Its clever techniques are displayed everyday on television without notice. Companies use a variety of techniques to get your business, and if you have ever acted in response to a supposedly great product, you have been persuaded by the suggestive power of propaganda. Not only are adults being persuaded but so are children and teenagers. It manipulates our opinions and convinces us to act or purchase something we otherwise would not have. Some of the popular methods used in everyday situations and advertising are: testimonials, glittering generalities and name-calling techniques.

“After using Proactiv solution for two weeks, my face got noticeably clearer.” Sound familiar? It is a great example of a classic testimonial. Businesses love to show everyday people giving an allegedly honest account of how great their product is. Proactiv acne solution is one of the many facial care products on the market today. How can a company stand out? Many use testimonials! Slogans like, “The Answer for acne,” and “Skin you want, now!” make it almost a definite choice to solve all one facial woes. People tend to always take word of mouth advice rather than from the salesman. Testimonials take their approach from this concept. Someone just like you and with clearer skin resulting from the use of their product makes it more appealing. Because people have gotten wise to the fact that most testimonials are done by paid actors, ads sometimes include the phrases, “not paid actors,” and “real people.” I must admit, we have been swayed by these types of advertisements, but the testimonial method is not the only technique used by the Proactiv Company. In fact, many commercials use a variety of methods to entice the potential buyer. Making the ordinary seem extraordinary is what we call a glittering generality.

Glittering generalities are general and sometimes unclear terms that are difficult to narrowly define and can have diverse meanings for different people. Advertisers and propagandists love to use moral terms and phrases like: American, patriotism, super, democracy, and freedom. When mostly political advertisements talk to us about democracy, we immediately think of our own definite ideas about democracy, the ideas we learned at home, at school, and possibly in church. Our first and natural reaction is to assume that the ad or speaker is using the word in our sense, and that the speaker believes as we do on this important topic. This lowers our resistance to the sales pitch or persuasion and makes us far less suspicious than we ought to be. For instance, let’s examine a quote from President George W. Bush, “See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations