What’s Good for the Goose-Step is Good Propaganda

Vocal Minority ^ | 9/17/09 | benjaminTheDonkey

[EricTheRed_VocalMinority]

Is propaganda just a quaint artifact of the past, or are art, design, and other communications being used now to exert a subtle but powerful influence in the political arena? And—are taxpayer dollars being used to fund it? (Make sure you read through to the end for the answer to that one) In the commercial arena, US businesses spent over $400 billion on marketing in 2008, down from much higher numbers in years previous. Business is driven by the bottom line, so all that spending must be reaping big rewards. What happens when the tools of marketing influence are turned toward political ends?

As a marketing communications and branding professional, I have been watching the way Barack Obama presents himself to the public with great interest. Here is someone who is clearly very savvy—he understands the power of communications, and uses it very deftly. He has shown himself to be quite shrewd—every move being executed with care and forethought. Because of this, his choices are eyebrow-raising—since we know they are not made in ignorance.

Certain people have already made note of the creepy similarities between the branding used by Obama and that of various totalitarian regimes. This post notes the visual similarity between the new Obama healthcare logo and the eagle/swastika emblem of the German National Socialist party. It has also been noted how the now famous Shepard Fairey “Hope” poster turns Obama into an icon employing a style reminiscent of Russian Constructivist design—the look used to great effect in Soviet propaganda. Of course, visual similarity does not mean an equivalency in substance. Merely looking like something doesn’t make it that thing. However, noting

[COUNTrecount]

Sound familiar?

The Five Rules of Propaganda

Here are five basic rules of propaganda, courtesy of Norman Davies in his extraordinary book “Europe: A History”:

The rule of simplification: reducing all data to a simple confrontation between ‘Good and Bad’, ‘Friend and Foe’.

The rule of disfiguration: discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.

The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one’s own ends.

The rule of unanimity: presenting one’s viewpoint as if it were the unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure, and by ‘psychological contagion’.

The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.

[MEGoody]

Propoganda is alive and well.

[GOPJ]

Constructivism (art)
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For the architectural aspect of the movement, see Constructivist architecture.
Tatlin Tower. Model of the Monument to the Third International

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural movement that originated in Russia from 1919 onward which rejected the idea of “art for art’s sake” in favour of art as a practice directed towards social purposes. Constructivism as an active force lasted until around 1934, having a great deal of effect on developments in the art of the Weimar Republic and elsewhere...

This backs you up EricTheRed... Obama wanted to reward artist who backed his programs...