I've shared this with some of you in email, but decided it deserves a wider viewing. This video produced by Pajamas Media provides a very interesting look at how Obama used a sophisticated advertising technique, idonography, or imagery with a subliminal message, to manipulate public opinion during the 2008 election campaign. And is still using it. Illegal? No. Advertisers do it all the time. Effective? Yes, just ask yourself why, without even thinking, you find yourself drawn to certain products at the grocery store. Potentially dangerous? Yes, I think that it is because it's a way of subtly manipulating opinion so that many of us won't realize we are being manipulated. ~~~ S. Lane
Watch and listen:
August 17, 2009
Barack Obama ran an unprecedented Presidential campaign - utilizing the power of design to help secure the seat of the President of the United States of America.
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A blog reader wrote me this morning asking if this is a joke? ..... No, it isn't. Use of images to convey an idea has been a staple of advertising in politics as well as in marketing products throughout human history. It has grown more sophisticated as visual media has developed and expanded. Images stay in our subconscious minds and can influence thinking and behavior -- positively and negatively. Images are like simple phrases repeated over and over. Such as "Hope and Change" or, in another context the "A few good men" which is a memorable recruiting catch phrase or "You're in good hands with . . ." in advertising a certain brand of insurance.
I think we need to be aware how the technique of imagery, iconography, is used in politics.
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