Probably the easiest way to distinguish them is that one tries to sell a thing, the other an idea. Some ads are primarily one or the other, while others include significant elements of both.
AD: Buy XXX Cereal. It tastes good and has vitamins.
COMBO: Buy XXX car. Driving it up and down the highway will make you sexier.
PROPAGANDA: Vote Republican -- We'll take care of you.
PROPAGANDA: Vote Republican -- We'll take care of you.
Hmmm, interesting. That's the Democratic propoganda line - we'll tax the rich and take care of the masses. The Republican (or, more generally, conservative) counter part would be more like: Vote Republican -- We'll enable you to take care of yourself.
Which brings up another aspect of propoganda: not just selling your own agenda, but misrepresenting your opposition's agenda to suit your own aims. In fact, your post itself falls squarely into that realm of propoganda.
The line between propganda and advertising is blurry, and getting more so. One thing they both have in common is that are trying to convince you of something that is someone between highly exaggerated and wholely untrue. Neither deals with telling you the unvarnished truth.
Well, I guess I really should have been generic:
Vote for Us -- We'll take care of you.
And, I was trying to cite an example of the type of message; and the previous two examples cited hypothetical content ....
Oops. Was I being a tad bit too defensive? :)
No, probably just the right amount. I was being too cynical. I just didn't want to divert a discussion on the nature of propaganda into a discussion on the merits of any particular example. There are already threads enough for that, and in a different forum section.
Not surprised that this topic which is a fantastic opportunity to be creative and shocking at the same time is making most of the people (maybe myself included) retire from it.
The damn truth is that most of us SUFFER the propaganda effects (and side-effects) and not produce it.
Propaganda has washed our brains so much that we find even difficult to find examples of it in these times which are overwhelmed by Propaganda messages of any kind.
Maybe we should not even try to be brilliant and cancel/replace this topic with a less "dangerous" one.
It's dangerous to try to portray the concept of propaganda, or an example of it, in a photograph? Please explain.
I quoted the term "dangerous".. I mean.. of course, if somebody is creative enough to capture in a photo the feelings of a particular propaganda then it certainly finds enemies among those who live for (and thanks to) that propaganda.
But the "danger" I was referring to was that of not being creative at all and coming out with some awful shot which does not mean anything at all..
I was just saying that (maybe) we are not brilliant enough to tackle such a big concept.
Sorry that you feel we are not brilliant enough. I think I'm going to give it a try anyway.
I didn't mean to be negative, I was just not expecting too much from this challenge.
After all there is nothing better of a nice surprise. Surprise me! =)
I'm giving it a shot, but worried all our good members outside of the US will not grasp the meaning. Not sure I will surprise you, but hope you'll like the photo or part of it. So..what the heck, can't do any worse then I have before. :)
Propaganda, dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions. Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by distortions of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be invariably false or misleading. This view is relative, however. Although some propagandists may intentionally distort fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers. A lawyer’s brief is as much propaganda as a billboard advertisement. Education, whatever its objective, is a form of propaganda. The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she espouses.
Propaganda, dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions. Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by distortions of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be invariably false or misleading. This view is relative, however. Although some propagandists may intentionally distort fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers. A lawyer’s brief is as much propaganda as a billboard advertisement. Education, whatever its objective, is a form of propaganda. The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she espouses.
