Journal 5 - Shock advertising and propaganda

Shock advertising is when someone creates an ad that crosses the acceptable lines in society. It is used to draw attention to the product or topic.

Personally, I strongly dislike and disprove of shock advertising. I do not think it is good to display images and content that most parents do not want their children seeing and plenty of adults do not want to be seeing either. I think it is kind of an infringement on other people – it is not respecting others very much. It is usually used solely for the company to gain advantage at the expense of the viewers.

I could see there potentially being a time when shock advertising might be appropriate in raising awareness or some sort of important issue, but in general I do not find shock advertising appropriate.

The first image I show is extremely offensive. It seems to belittle a very traumatic and heart-wrenching event. The purpose is only for wildlife preservation and taking care of the planet. I think there could have been a much better way to prove their point, especially because there might not be a ton that we can do to prevent tsunamis. This ad is extremely insensitive, especially to the families who were directly affected by 9/11.

The second one is advocating for people to stop using tobacco products. In a sense, I feel like the premise has some validity to it – when people are addicted to a product they are, in a sense, a slave to it. However, the general tone of the image is very shocking and I am not sure it is ethical to place this around the city. It is not an uplifting image for children and young people especially to be looking at. This one seems more fair than many shock advertising examples, but I still do not think that it is very appropriate. Specifically because the people are so young, it gives the image more of an eerie feeling. I do not think displaying images like this respects the public.

Propaganda is when (usually the government) creates misleading media or advertisements. Often they do not tell the whole truth – they are persuasive pieces that twist the truth to some degree at least and are supposed to sway and deceive the public opinion.

In general, I do not think that propaganda is a good thing. Any time someone is intentionally misleading the public, that seems quite bad to me. Even though it might be done with a good purpose in mind, I still do not think it is the best way. And then it falls under the personal moral compasses of the people in charge – maybe someone thinks one thing is an acceptable purpose for propaganda, whereas someone else does not. Any time facts are withheld or twisted to deceive, I say that falls under the category of being unethical.

What can be hard to distinguish sometimes are media pieces that are designed to help get the public on board with something. As sad as it might be, logic and facts and well-thought out advertisements might not be as effective in stirring public opinion as simple, emotionally-charged pieces that could fall under the category of propaganda. For instance, during war the government and other organizations often produce propaganda. War is a terrible thing, but if the country decides to go to war it is crucial for the public to be in support of it. Having the simple posters of the past that showed Rosie the Riveter and other types of mass communication that were trying to sway public opinion might not be a completely bad thing. However, as a general principle I do not find propaganda very ethical.

I think in some senses there are a lot of complexities to the issue of propaganda, although as a rule of thumb I would say it is negative. In some cases, it can be horribly, horribly negative and immoral.

I have two examples of propaganda here. One is a very straightforward example of propaganda that I found in an article on listverse.com. It shows an image the government of a country recently circulated to convince the public of something. However, it came out that this image was actually photoshopped. This is a blatant lie and clearly unethical; this is a very straightforward and clear-cut example of propaganda.

The second use of propaganda that I have here is an especially interesting example to me. This picture was actually taken by a friend of mine who traveled to a country that does not enjoy many of the freedoms we have. In the photo, it has the face of a prominent figure along with words that basically say that this person will continue until victory and that they will get victory. This is an example of propaganda – the government proclaiming things not completely true to the people. I think campaigns like this are unethical (especially when produced by the government) because they are not an accurate picture of reality and are not fair and balanced, nor do they aim to be.

In general, I feel like if there is something actually worth convincing the public over, it can and should be done in an ethical way. Any attempt to deceive or massively pressure the public is wrong and should not be done.