Alex Carey Definition Of Propaganda

In contemporary society, advertising is everywhere. From radio commercials to highway billboards, from television infomercials to targeted Google search results, the average person’s senses are being constantly bombarded with branded imagery. Jowett and O’Donnell define advertising as, “a series of appeals, symbols, and statements deliberately designed to influence the receiver… toward the point of view desired by the communicator” (162). These images and appeals have one specific purpose: to evoke a certain behavior in the receiver that will benefit the originator of the message. In the case of most advertising, the originator is a company hoping to push an audience to consumerist behaviors. Whether or not these behaviors are as beneficial …show more content…
Simply put, propaganda is “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape… manipulate… and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” (7). The public relations industry has grown exponentially, and commercialism is so pervasive as to become a marker of industrialized society. According to author Alex Carey, “commercial advertising and public relations are the forms of propaganda activity common to a democracy” (6). Today’s advertising culture fits with all aspects of this propaganda definition. Marketing techniques are indeed deliberate, with advertisers picking and choosing exactly what information they want the audience to have and exactly how they want the audience to come by this information. Commercial promotion has also become more and more systematic, with advertising firms investing huge budgets into scientific testing of publicity methods, all in the hopes of increasing their return (167). Advertisers are able to target their demographic and invade every aspect of their audience’s lives with emotional and ethical appeals to engage in consumerism. As with the broader concept of propaganda, advertising itself has little regard for the well-being of the consumer; mutual benefit is not a necessity as long as the propagandist gets his or her …show more content…
Jowett and O’Donnell assert that advertising is at its most harmful in light of “the increasing use of the tactics of this consumer advertising to market dangerous substances (tobacco and alcohol) and political figures and ideologies” (169). This makes sense, considering that when these sorts of substances are looked at in an objective light, most people would not be as inclined to partake. The positive “spin” that advertisers are able to place on cigarettes and booze causes consumers to look past the serious repercussions these drugs can have on one’s health. Political figures also use advertising space to disseminate their own partisan agendas in ways that manipulate voters’ hearts and minds, all for the benefit of the candidate and his or her