Propaganda Techniques in Today's Advertising
by Ann McClintock
1. 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 content – even eager – to be victimized. We read advertisers’ propaganda messages in newspapers and magazines; we watch their alluring images on television. We absorb their messages and images into our subconscious. We all do it – even those of us who claim to see through advertisers’ tricks and therefore feel immune to advertising’s charm. Advertisers learn heavily on propaganda to sell products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint.
2. Propaganda is a systematic effort to influence people’s opinions, to win them to a certain view or side. Propaganda is not necessarily concerned with what is true or false, good or bad. Propagandas simply want people to believe the massage being sent. Often, propagan
da will use outright lies or more subtle deceptions to sway people’s opinions. In a propaganda war, any tactic is considered fair.
3. When we hear the word “propaganda”, we usually think of a foreign menace: anti-American radio programs broadcast by a totalitarian regime or brainwashing tactics practiced on hostages. Although propaganda may seem relevant only in the political arena, the concept can be applied fruitfully to the way products and ideas are sold in advertising. Indeed, the vast majority of us are targets in advertisers’ propaganda war. Every day, we are bombarded with slogans, print and internet pop-up ads, commercials, packaging claims, billboards, trademarks, logos, and designer brands – all forms of propaganda. One study reports that each of us, during an average day, is exposed to over five hundred advertising claims of various types. This saturation may even increase in the future, since current trends include ads on movie screens, shopping carts, videocassettes, and even public television.
4. What kind of propaganda techniques do advertisers use? There are seven basic types.
5. (1). Name Calling. Name calling is a propaganda tactic in which negatively charged names are hurled against the opposing side or competitor. By using such names, propagandists try to arouse feelings of mistrust, fear, and hate in their audiences. 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 the power” can be the epithets that damage an opponent. Ads for products may also use name calling. An American manufacturer may refer, for instance, to a “foreign car” in its commercial – not an “imported” one. The label of foreignness will have unpleasant connotations in many people’s minds. A childhood rhyme claims that “names can never hurt me,” but name calling is an effective way to damage the opposition, whether it is another car maker or a congressional candidate.
6. (2). Glittering Generalities. Using glittering generalities is the opposite of name calling. In this case, advertisers surround their products with attractive – and slippery – words and phrases. They use vague terms that are difficult to define and that may have di
fferent meaning to different people: freedom, democratic, all-Americantoday, progressive, Christian, and justice. Many such words have strong affirmative overtones. This kind of language 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 mean – or whether they even apply to the product. After all, how can anyone oppose “truth, justice and the American way”?
7. The ads for politicians and political causes often use glittering generalities because such “buzzwords” 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.” (What does “great” mean? Does “great” mean the same thing to others as it does to me?)
● “Vote for the future.” (What kind of future?)
● “If you love America, vote for Phyllis Smith.” (If I don’t vote for Smith, does that mean I don’t love America?)
8. Ads for consumer goods are also sprinkled with glittering generalities. Product names, for instance, are supposed to evoke good feelings: Luvs diapers, Stayfree feminine hygiene products, Joy liquid detergent, Loving Care hair color, Almost Home cookies, Yankee Doodle pastries. Product slogans lean heavily on vague but comforting phrases: … General Electric “brings good things to life,” and Dow Chemical “lets you do great things.” Chevrolet, we are told, is the “heartbeat of America,” and Chrysler boasts cars that are “built by Americans for Americans.”

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