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on propaganda wars
Mar. 12th, 2014 12:07 am...the internet — and social media in particular — has changed that completely. The propaganda industry has been disrupted to the same degree by social media as conventional business was disrupted by mass production processes so many years ago.
The greatest shift is that most propaganda is no longer dominated by corporate interests striving to command our hearts and minds so that they can sell us more products. Propaganda is instead being used by us to sell ourselves to our peers.
But, while the universalisation of propaganda may have provided ever more of us with these awesome propaganda tools, it has also debased its worth. Attention span, after all, is finite. Millions, if not billions, of voices (both private and corporate) now compete against each other to influence public opinion on a daily basis.
Think of it this way. Proctor & Gamble isn’t competing with Pepsico for your attention span anymore, it’s competing with the pictures and videos of cats, food and holidays posted by your nearest and dearest.
True, corporate interests are still trying to harness the power of private propaganda for themselves. But — in the new open propaganda war — that means getting people to associate their own narcissistic self-promotion with their products. That’s a big ask, given that time spent promoting products is less time spent promoting yourself, and your online desirability.
In our minds, no product is more important than ourselves. The best propagandists understand this. They understand that people will only promote a product if it helps them promote themselves at the same time. Yet herein lies a fundamental paradox.
...
Today’s most effective propaganda consequently is the sort that inspires people to care about things other than themselves.
Red bull was an early trailblazer on this front, disassociating itself almost entirely from the product in its marketing and focusing on fun, experience and radical individualism. The ads don’t sell the product, they sell a brand, which in reality is a social protocol for a different (more enjoyable) way of life. An ideology focused on experience not consumerism.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/02/27/1783842/the-bitcoin-personality-cult-lives-on
The greatest shift is that most propaganda is no longer dominated by corporate interests striving to command our hearts and minds so that they can sell us more products. Propaganda is instead being used by us to sell ourselves to our peers.
But, while the universalisation of propaganda may have provided ever more of us with these awesome propaganda tools, it has also debased its worth. Attention span, after all, is finite. Millions, if not billions, of voices (both private and corporate) now compete against each other to influence public opinion on a daily basis.
Think of it this way. Proctor & Gamble isn’t competing with Pepsico for your attention span anymore, it’s competing with the pictures and videos of cats, food and holidays posted by your nearest and dearest.
True, corporate interests are still trying to harness the power of private propaganda for themselves. But — in the new open propaganda war — that means getting people to associate their own narcissistic self-promotion with their products. That’s a big ask, given that time spent promoting products is less time spent promoting yourself, and your online desirability.
In our minds, no product is more important than ourselves. The best propagandists understand this. They understand that people will only promote a product if it helps them promote themselves at the same time. Yet herein lies a fundamental paradox.
...
Today’s most effective propaganda consequently is the sort that inspires people to care about things other than themselves.
Red bull was an early trailblazer on this front, disassociating itself almost entirely from the product in its marketing and focusing on fun, experience and radical individualism. The ads don’t sell the product, they sell a brand, which in reality is a social protocol for a different (more enjoyable) way of life. An ideology focused on experience not consumerism.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/02/27/1783842/the-bitcoin-personality-cult-lives-on