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
•
•
•
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Examples: Brett Farve and MicroTouch
Micro Touch
Michael Jordan and Hanes
Dentists and toothpastes
Plain Folks
• Use of a common man, ordinary person to
promote a product.
• Scenes of family, blue-collar workers, ordinary
people
Products
Brawny - lumberjack—paper towels
Vonage – saved families hundreds of $ each year
Plain Folks
President Obama in street clothes as baseball
game…just a “regular” guy
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
• Washington, DC sports fans
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; does 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
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?