Transcript Propaganda Techniques PowerPoint

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 toothpastes
• Jessica Simpson and Pro Active Acne
medication
Testimonials
Use 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, ordinary person to
promote a product.
• Scenes of family, blue-collar workers, ordinary
people
Products
Oil-man, T-Boone Pickins-- energy plan
Brawny - lumberjack—paper towels
Vonage – saved families hundreds of $ each year
Plain Folks
Use with Causes (lofty purpose)
• Ordinary families using CHIP (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.
Bandwagon
• Products such as the Verizon
Network
• 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-stacking
Use 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
Card-stacking
• Used 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 generalities
Used to sell products
• “New and Improved” Tide, Windex etc.
• Chevy—”American Built; Solid as a Rock”
• Room deodorizer— “Smells Like the
Great Outdoors”
Glittering generalities
Used for lofty purposes
Examples:
• Chevy – “American Built; Solid as a Rock”
– Promotes American Pride
Hasty generalization
Use 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 Dexatrim; 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
Transfer
• Transfer 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 –Infiniti, Mustang, Taurus (bull)
Transfer
Used to sell products
• Example: Bridgestone—official tires of
the NFL
• M&M’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?
What is going on here?
• What is the
propaganda device
used here?
• What is the purpose?
• Is it effective? Why
or why not?