Propaganda techniques

Or How the media gets

Americans to buy, think, and vote

What is propaganda?

• Persuasive techniques applied by politicians, journalists, television personalities, and others to accomplish their desired ends.

• These techniques persuade us not through the give-and-take of argument and debate, but through manipulating symbols and basic human emotions.

Testimonial• Use of a celebrity (athletes, musicians,

actors) or authority figure (doctors, auto mechanics, plumbers) to endorse or promote a product, cause, idea.

Products• Examples: Troy Polomalu and L T

anwswering mother’ call; meeting at end of tunnel

• Michael Jordan and Hanes • Dentists and tooth pastes • Jessica Simpson and Pro Active Acne

medication

TestimonialsUse of causes• Sarah MacLaughlin—ASPCA• Presidents Bush and Clinton –

Tsunami relief• P Diddy- Vote or die campaign• Lance Armstrong- Live Strong,

cancer

Plain Folks• Use of a common man, the • Scenes of family, blue-collar

workers,

Products Oil-man, T-Bone Pickins-- energy planBrawny—lumberjack—paper towels

Plain FolksUse with Causes (lofty purpose)• Ordinary families using CHIPS (health care for

children)• Joe the Plumber—ordinary citizen used to show

values of all

Bandwagon• Use of threat of not being one of

the crowd, being left out is substituted for evidence of the quality of the product

• Use of appeal to the subject to follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well.

BandwagonProducts such as the VerizonNetwork

Walmart ad-everyone tries to rush into store at same time

Gatorade-Everyone follows Sidney Crosby’s lead in drinking gatorade

Nike-Just do it

Card-stacking• Providing only information that is

positive to an idea or product and omitting information that is negative to the idea or product

Ex: Warnings given at end of drug commercials

Card-stackingUse of technique to sell products

Lipitor ads—positive information given at first; negative side effects rushed at end• Alcohol ads—pleasant setting—pretty people, warnings about drunken driving and dangers to pregnant women

• Trident—4 out of 5 dentists recommend

Card-stackingUse to promote causes or ideas (Lofty

purpose)BP—clean energy, environmentally

friendly; do not address fact that it is not available in near future

Glittering generalities

• Use of words that have different positive meanings but are linked to highly valued concepts.

• Ex: patriotism, loyalty, green, environmentally friendly, low fat; no carbohydrates, organic

Glittering generalitiesUsed to sell products• “New And improved” Tide, Windex

etc.• Chevy—”American built; solid as a

rock”• Room deodorizer—”smells like the

great outdoors”

Glittering generalitiesUsed for lofty purposesExamples:

Hasty generalizationUse of small group to represent the

position of the whole group.• Ex: Even though it is the first day, I

can tell this is going to be a boring course.

• E-Harmony commercials “I found my soul-mate. You can too. ”

• I lost 50 pounds on Alli, you can too.

Red Herring• Use of change in subject to distract

the reader from topic under discussion.

• BP commercial displays windmills in background to distract us from the real issue of oil prices

TransferTransfer is a device by which the

propagandist carries over the authority, and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us accept.

Use of feeling of respect or reverence to something advertisers want public to accept or buy. Ex: White lab coats to sell pain relievers and make up.

• Names of cars –Impala, mustang, Taurus (bull)

Transfer

Used to sell productsExample: Bridgestone—official tires

of the NFLMM’s official candy of the Olympics Used for lofty purposes: Save the Children Network—authority

of valued institution therefore give to the charity

Political ads using

transfer• What is the

purpose of the transfer?

• Is it effective?

mccin wheel of fortune.jpg

What is going on here?• What is the

propaganda device used here?

• What is the purpose?

• Is it effective;why or why not?