Sometimes even the slickest public relations effort doesn't improve a person's or an institution's image. Think of the U.S. State Department's $15 million "Shared Values" ad campaign, which tried to assuage anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Last month we noted that one of the obstacles facing U.S. military recruiters is "parents who are reluctant to see their kids enlist." Now the army is responding with an advertising campaign targeting parents directly with the slogan, "help them find their strength." Seth Stevenson analyzes the ads and their new slogan, in which "The Army has at last been repositioned as a finishing school.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Washington Post "is withdrawing its offer of free advertising for an organized event by the Defense Department," after its sponsorship drew criticism from peace groups and the Newspaper Guild, which represents 1,400 Post employees.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog group, says conservative media are spreading "a lie" about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who has become a vocal anti-war protester.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The Washington Post has produced an impressive special report, "e-Qaeda," which shows how al Qaeda and allied groups are using the Internet to recruit more fighters, spread their message and train their followers to commit acts of terror. The site includes samples of terrorist manuals and screenshots of jihadist web sites. It includes an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an expert in jihadists' use of the web.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Neil Doyle, an author who studies the way terrorists use the internet, says they've developed an effective propaganda machine that can't easily be stopped. Among other uses, they post gruesome videos celebrating terrorist attacks. "Quite often these films come out within hours of the attacks taking place," Doyle says.
Years of writing about public relations and propaganda has probably made me a bit jaded, but I was amazed nevertheless when I visited America's Army, an online video game website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In its quest to find recruits, the military has literally turned war into entertainment.
"America's Army" offers a range of games that kids can download or play online. Although the games are violent, with plenty of opportunities to shoot and blow things up, they avoid graphic images of death or other ugliness of war, offering instead a sanitized, Tom Clancy version of fantasy combat. One game, Overmatch, promises "a contest in which one opponent is distinctly superior ... with specialized skills and superior technology ... OVERMATCH: few soldiers, certain victory" (more or less the same overconfident message that helped lead us into Iraq).
Submitted by Laura Miller on
The U.S. Navy spent over $1.6 million on PR work to influence a vote on whether part of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques would continue to serve as a bombing range, the Associated Press reports.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups," the New York Times reports. The administration's new spin emphasizes that the U.S. is waging a "global struggle against violent extremism" instead of a "global war on terror" and that the struggle is more than just a military campaign. The solution is "more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military," Gen.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
Following a July 24 car bombing in Baghdad that killed 25 people and wounded 33 others, the Pentagon issued a press release with a "quotation attributed to an unidentified Iraqi that was virtually identical to a quote reacting to an attack on July 13," CNN reports.
"After questioning by news media, the military released the statement without the quotation." An army spokesman said the use of the nearly identical quote was an "administrative error" and that the military was looking into the matter.
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