Propaganda: a Use Beyond Government and Politics

Until the last few decades, propaganda was something governments used for information or disinformation, to encourage the domestic population and to discourage the enemy. Perhaps the greatest propaganda film of all time was made by the German Leni Riefenstahl, in showing how hundreds of thousands of Germans adored Adolf Hitler. She also made an equally fascinating propaganda film about the Berlin Olympics in 1936, again showing the world the strength and dedication of those blond Nordic Germany young people. In World War II, Germany had Lord Haw Haw, a Briton now broadcasting for the Nazis, and the Japanese had Tokyo Rose, a Japanese -American who played recordings and bragged about the victories of Japan over America. We had (and have) The Voice of America, first aimed at the Axis, then at the Communist Nations, and now beamed to Cuba and Third World countries.

But that was war-time. Today, propaganda is used, especially in this country under the guise of Public Relations (PR) to state the case of industry versus government regulation, or one competitor versus another. Lobbyists, paid experts, also use one form of propaganda or another to encourage legislators to vote on bills favoring their clients.

Perhaps one of the most expensive pro- and con- campaigns in recent memory, still on-going, is the campaign by the tobacco industry, and by organizations using money won by states in anti-tobacco court suits.

The anchor points are well-defined: The anti-smoking organizations are out to either reduce the amount of smoking and smokers, or getting young people not to start in the first place. Big Tobacco is not overtly encouraging smoking, but they are making every effort to depict them as caring corporations, doing good for communities and not the manufacturers of death that the anti-smoking groups show them as being.

Among anti-smoking advertising is one outstanding TV ad which shows a grandfather watching his tiny grandson take his first steps. As he motions the little baby to waddle toward him, we see the baby literally walk through the old man. He isn't there. The end message is "Be there. Stop smoking".