Week 9: Propaganda in Advertising/PR

I saw the Verizon Wireless commercial “There’s a map for that” on you tube. This commercial is promoting Verizon Wireless and showing AT&T Wireless is number two, where as Verizon is number one. The ad itself is looks like it could very well be an Apple Iphone ad.

This ad appealed to “plain folks” and used the technique common man. They show a college student casually dressed is walking through a college campus playing video games or watching you tube videos on his Verizon cell phone. He looks happy on his phone, at the end of the ad he see’s crosses someone on an Apple Iphone and he looks at him in “I’m better then you” way. The commercial shows the other college student with the Apple Iphone looks upset and frustrated looking at his Iphone. The ad shows maps of coverage area for Verizon and for AT&T. Verizon’s coverage map is in red and AT&T’s map is blue. It looks almost like the Republicans and Democratic political party map. How it’s in red and blue.

Advertising agents know what they portray in commercials, and this could be an act of political subliminal messaging. Or it could simply be Verizon’s corporate color is red and AT&T’s logo is blue.

The other propaganda technique this commercial used was labeling. It directly labeled AT&T as “second best” subconsciously showing Verizon as “number one”.

Here is a link to the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCbYTrYD5y8

Week 8: Eletronic News

I watch CNN Lary King Live. They went over Major Hassan who is responsible for Fort Hood’s shooting. If his motives we’re terrorism or is he just a lunatic? They said it’s to early to determine this and we can only see in the coming weeks. Next they covered Sarah Palin’s new book “Going Rogue”. They showed a clip of her interview w/ Oprah and discussed if she is ready to run for office again in 2012. The lead story we’re the five detainee’s from Guantanamo being brought to New York for a civilian trial. Wolf Blitzer was sitting in for Larry King he seemed neutral in his tone of voice and facial expressions. He was relaxed, didn’t raise his voice and was polite to everyone on the show. They talked to one guy who was “pro” bringing these terrorist to New York for a trial his argument was this shows American justice. It shows to our allies we are humane and will improve our self-image. Then they had one guy who was “against” bringing these terrorist to New York. His argument was it may provoke another attack on New York and gives these detainee’s a platform to insult us and make us look foolish. I think they picked this as the lead story because it’s the newest hottest topic besides Fort Hood. The whole show and commercials worked in this sequence:

Show (5 Guantanamo detainee’s coming to NYC for civilian trial. Doing this will bring justice and it’ll be public no more of this military trial all in secrecy.) -4 minutes

T.V ad for www.lawyers.com -28 seconds

T.V ad for FedEx -29 seconds

Show (These detainee’s have said they are guilty and to execute them quickly then why are we having all this big fuss and having a public trial? It should be fair and quick, swift justice. These people should not be given rights that American’s have. These people are war criminals they need to be tried in military court.  They will be proven guilty and given the death penalty.) -5:00 minutes

T.V ad for Walmart -28 seconds

T.V ad for Dove bady wash – 27 seconds

T.V ad to call Congress to lower taxes -28 seconds

T.V ad for Cisco Systems -27 seconds

T.V ad for Chevy Malibu 29 seconds

Show (5 detainee’s tried in civil court in NY. They will be convicted guilty, this is showing American justice. We have screwed up our image worldwide and this will sort of mix that. This will help us and we shouldn’t be to worried) -4:30 seconds

T.V ad for Priceline -28 seconds

T.V ad for AARP -27 seconds

T.V ad for CNN online -10 seconds

T.V ad for UFC -29 seconds

Show (Major Hassan, is he motivated by terrorism or was he just a lunatic? He was in contact via email w/ a Yemen clerk who is an extremist and supports Al Qeda.) -8 minutes

T.V ad for Jeep -28 seconds

T.V ad for Clalis -1:00 minute

T.V ad for Forex.com -26 seconds

Show (Sarah Palin’s new book “Going Rogue”. A clip of her interview w/ Oprah. Is Palin ready to run in 2012? What she needs to do in order to be ready!) -3:00 minutes