User:BruceNaing/Propaganda through media

Emphasis and Repression in Advertising.
Media companies use advertising to advance propaganda. Studies have reported that organizations use advertising to promote economic propaganda by influencing how consumers perceive brands. Ideally, consumers need to have access to all the necessary information that is required to make purchase decisions. On the contrary, advertisements contain positive and exaggerated information that is intended to convince a consumer to buy a particular product (Rabab'ah and Khawaldeh 7). Many adverts are known to include phrases such as "50 percent stronger" or "Less than 30 percent fat,” which are highly emphasized. These statements mislead consumers who fail to take into account the shortcomings associated with products that are typically repressed in the advert while focusing on exaggerated features (Soules 21). Accordingly, this strategy amounts to propaganda since companies use it to cause consumers to make irrational decisions by intentional influencing.

Reference Propaganda through Name Calling
Name-calling has traditionally existed as a common technique for propaganda, as it involves making statements that demean and undermine a competitor without necessarily being true (Rabab'ah and Khawaldeh 8). Common brand names such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been known to engage in name-calling (Koschmann and Sheth 24). The two companies often come up with advertisements that undermine the products that the other offers. Similarly, Burger King ran an ad that featured its sandwich “The Whopper” being bigger than the box that McDonald’s uses in packing its “Big Mac” hamburger (Handley 1). These examples underscore how companies have resorted to using name-calling in advertising rather than highlighting how their products would benefit the consumer. Consequently, these organizations manage to persuade and manipulate consumers into making purchase decisions based on misleading information.

Bandwagon Propaganda
Companies increasingly use the technique in advertising their products and services. This method seeks to convince a consumer to make a purchase decision out of the fear of being left out (Asemah and Nwammuo 14). Claiming that millions of consumers are using their products or services and that it would be a mistake not to be part of the trend. In 1994, McDonald's featured an advert that claimed that the fast-food company had served 99 billion customers since its inception. While such a claim may be valid, such information is not meant to allow a consumer to make a rational purchase decision (Chomsky and Vltchek 44). Instead, these statements are designed to cause people to buy products that they do not necessarily need for the mere reason of not being the one left out. Bandwagon propaganda has, therefore, become a central aspect of modern advertising.

Glittering Generality
Another common propaganda technique that is often used in advertising in glittering generality. This approach involves using statements that contain phrases that the consumer would immediately consider valuable without further analysis (Kadir and Tsuchiya 25). When used effectively, this strategy allows a company to use its adverts in appealing to consumers emotionally rather than helping them to make rational decisions. Some of the most common terms that are used in advertising to elicit immediate positive feelings among consumers include better and best (Koschmann and Sheth 24). An advert may emphasize that the product is the best for the consumer without necessarily indicating the reason why and how the consumer would benefit from making the purchase. Since consumers want to acquire the best products and services, they choose to buy such items without analyzing whether the claims are valid. The ability to trigger a positive reaction on the consumer forms the basis of glittering generality in advertising.

Transfer
Entailing advertisement to projecting positive or negative feelings that a person has regarding a specific idea or person to another. (Aureliano-Silva 59) The goal of transfer propaganda in advertising is to cause the consumer to associate a product with positive or negative qualities such as patriotism and nationalism in their product evaluation. (Pedro-Carañana, Broudy, and Klaehn 27). An advert that emphasizes patriotism, for instance, might be designed to cause consumers to buy a product out of the love that they have for their country. Companies take advantage of the fact that people value some things and that they detest others in shaping marketing campaigns.

Testimonial
Advertisements across the world also contain aspects of testimonial propaganda. Notably, this strategy involves including influential people, as well as authority figures and experts, in adverts to attract the attention of consumers. (Aureliano-Silva 68) A toothpaste advert that claims that 99 percent of dentists would recommend the product is an example of how testimonial propaganda occurs in advertising. Similarly, companies or campains are known to use celebrities in endorsing different products through both traditional and modern advertising channels. (Domazet, Đokić, and Milovanov 16). A billboard containing the picture of a famous footballer holding a ball could, for instance, create the impression that the celebrity prefers the specific brand. In such cases, companies may persuade and manipulate consumers into believing that their products have been tested and approved by authority figures (Asemah and Nwammuo 15). An understanding of how testimonial advertising affects consumers is, therefore, helpful in assessing why companies use it.

References[ edit]

 * 1) Asemah, Ezekiel S., and Angela N. Nwammuo. "Implications of Social Judgement Theory for Persuasive Advertising Campaigns." Journal of Research in National Development 15.1 (2017): 11-21. ISSN: 1596-8303
 * 2) Aureliano-Silva, Leonardo. "The Brand’s Effect on the Evaluation of Advertising Endorsed by Celebrities: An Experimental Study." Brazilian Business Review 12.4 (2015): 57-78. ISSN: 1596-8303 DOI: 10.15728/bbr.2015.12.4.3
 * 3) Chomsky, Noam, and Andre Vltchek. On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare. Pluto Press, 2013. ISBN: 97807453993170745399312
 * 4) Domazet, Ivana S., Ines Đokić, and Olja Milovanov. "The Influence of Advertising Media on Brand Awareness." Management: Journal of Sustainable Business and Management Solutions in Emerging Economies 23.1 (2017): 13-22. https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2017.0022.
 * 5) Handley, Lucy. “Burger King’s Moldy Whopper Ad is Dividing Marketing Experts.” CNBC. 20 Feb. 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/burger-kings-moldy-whopper-ad-is-dividing-marketing-experts.html
 * 6) Kadir, Shamsiah Abd, and Toshio Tsuchiya. "Emotion and Techniques of Propaganda in YouTube Videos." Indian Journal of Science and Technology 9 (2016): 21-33. doi: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9iS1/106841
 * 7) Koschmann, Anthony and Sheth, Jagdish N, Do Brands Compete or Coexist? Evidence from the Cola Wars (May 5, 2016). Kilts Center for Marketing at Chicago Booth – Nielsen Dataset Paper Series 2-051. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2776376 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2776376
 * 8) Pedro-Carañana, Joan, Daniel Broudy, and Jeffery Klaehn. The Propaganda Model Today. University of Westminster Press, 2018. ISBN: 19126561679781912656165
 * 9) Rabab'ah, Ghaleb Ahmed, and Malak Khawaldeh. "Persuasive Appeals in English and Arabic TV Advertisements: Implications for EFL Learners and Teachers." Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences 48.4116 (2016): 1-13. doi: 10.12816/0035120
 * 10) Soules, Marshall. Media, Persuasion and Propaganda. Edinburgh University Press, 2015. p. 78-95 JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g09zzm. Accessed 4 May 2020.