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Section four: Mass Media
1.
Propaganda Techniques in
Today
’
s Advertising
We
Americans, adults and
children alike, are being seduced. They are being
brainwashed.
And
few
of
us
protest.
Why?
Because
the
seducers
and
the
brainwashers
are
the
advertisers
we
willingly
invite
into
our
homes.
We
are
victims,
seemingly
content
—
even
eager
—
to
be
victimized.
One
study
reports
that
each
of
us,
during
an
average
day,
is
exposed
to
over
five
hundred
advertising claims of various types.
This bombardment may even increase in the
future,
since
current
trends
include
ads
on
movie
screens,
shopping
carts,
videocassettes,
even
public
television.
We
absorb
their
messages
and
images
into
our subconscious.
Advertisers lean heavily on propaganda
to sell their products, whether the
“
products
”
are
a
brand
of
toothpaste,
a
candidate
for
office,
or
a
political
viewpoint.
Propaganda is a systematic effort to
influence people
’
s opinions,
to win
them
over
to
a
certain
view
or
side.
Propaganda
is
not
necessarily
concerned
with
what
is
true or false, good or bad.
Propagandists simply want
people to
believe the
messages
being
sent.
Advertisers
often
use
subtle
deceptions
to
sway
people
’
s
opinions; they may even use what amount
to outright lies.
What kind of propaganda techniques do
advertisers use? There are seven basic
types:
1.
Name
Calling
Name
calling
is
a
propaganda
tactic
in
which
a
competitor
is
referred
to
with
negatively
charged
names
or
comments.
By
using
such
negative
associations,
propagandists
try
to
arouse
feelings
of
mistrust,
fear,
and even hate in their audiences.
2.
For example, a political advertisement
may label an opposing candidate a
“
loser,
”
“
fence-
sitter,
”
or
“
warmonger
”
. Depending on the
advertiser
’
s target market,
labels such as
“
a
friend of big business
”
or
“
a dues-paying
member of the party
in
power
”
can be the
epithets that damage an opponent. Ads for products
also
often use name calling. An
American manufacturer may refer in its commercial,
for
instance,
to
a
“
foreign
car
”
-not
an
“
imported
one.
”
The
label
of
foreignness
will
have
unpleasant
connotations
in
many
people
’
s
minds.
Another
example
is
the
MasterCard ad that shows a man trying
unsuccessfully to get some cash with
his American Express card. A childhood
rhyme claims that
“
name can
never hurt
me,
”
but name calling is an effective way to
damage the opposition, whether it is
another credit card company or a
congressional candidate.
3.
Glittering
Generalities
。
A
glittering
generality
is
an
important-
sounding
but
general claim
for which no explanation or proof is
offered
. It is the opposite of
name
calling.
advertisers
who
use
glittering
generalities
surround
their
products with
attractive
—
and
slippery
—
words and phrases.
They use vague
terms
that
are
difficult
to
define
and
that
may
have
different
meanings
to
different
people
，
such as
“<
/p>
great
”
,
“
progress
”
,
“
beautiful
”
and
“
super
”
.
This kind of
languages stirs positive feelings in people,
feelings that may spill
over
to
the
product
or
idea
being
pitched.
As
with
name
calling,
the
emotional
response
may
overwhelm
logic.
Target
audiences
accept
the
product
without
thinking
very
much
about
what
the
glittering
generalities
really mean.
4.
The
ads
for
politicians
and
political
causes
often
use
glittering
generalities
because such
“
buzz
words
”
can
influence votes. Election slogans
include high-sounding but basically
empty phrases like the following:
“
He cares about
people.
”
(That
’
s nice, but
is he a better candidate than his
opponent?)
“
Vote for
progress.
”
(Progress by whose standards?)
“
They
’
ll make this country great
again.
”
(Does
“
great
”
mean the same
thing to
candidate as it does to me?)
“
Vote for the
future.
”
(What
kind of future?)
Ads for
consumer goods are also sprinkled with
generalities. Product names,
for
instance,
are
often
designed
to
evoke
good
feelings:
Love
diapers,
New
Freedom
feminine
hygiene
products,
joy
liquid
detergent,
and
Loving
Care
hair
color. Products slogans lean heavily on
vague but comforting phrases: Kinney is
“
The
Great
American
Shoe
Store,
”
General
Electric
“
brings
good
things
to
life,
”
and
Dow
Chemical
“
lets
you
do
great
things.
”
We
are
also
told
that
Chevrolet, is the
“
heartbeat of
America,
”
and
Coke is
“
the real
thing.
”
3.
Transfers
In transfer,
advertisers try to improve the image of a product
by
associating
it
with
a
symbol
most
people
respect,
like
the
American
flag
or
Uncle Sam. The advertisers hope that
the prestige attached to the symbol will
carry over to the product.
Many companies use transfer devices to
identify their
products:
Lincoln
Insurance
shows
a
profile
of
the
president;
Continental
Insurance
portrays a Revolutionary War minuteman;
Amtrak
’
s logo is red, white,
and blue; Liberty
Mutual
’
s corporate symbol is
the Statue of Liberty;
Allstate
’
s
name
is cradled by a pair of protective, fatherly
hands.
Corporations
also
use
the
transfer
techniques
when
they
sponsor
prestigious shows on radio and
television. These shows function as symbols of
dignity
and
class.
Kraft
Corporation,
for
instance,
sponsored
a
“
Leonard
Bernstein
Conducts
Beethoven
”
concert,
while
Gulf
Oil
is
the
sponsor
of
National Geographic specials and Mobil
supports public television
’
s
Masterpiece
Theater. In this way,
corporations can reach an educated, influential
audience and,
perhaps,
improve
their
public
image
by
associating
themselves
with
quality
programming.
Political
ads,
of
course,
practically
wrap
themselves
in
the
flag.
Ads
for
a
political candidate often show the
Washington Monument, a Fourth of July parade,
the Stars and Strips, a bald eagle
soaring over the mountains, or a white-steeple
church on the village green. The
national anthem or
“
America
the Beautiful
”
may play softly in the background. Such
appeals to Americans
’
love of country
can surround
the candidate with an aura of patriotism and
integrity.
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