Perfected Propoganda

Propaganda is never tampered with in time, never diminished or hushed by calm in society and never put to rest by media. It is a timeless effort that transcends political campaigns or periodical problems. Although, just like with everything else in our world, propaganda has changed with the changing times, it is still very much alive and thriving in our centuries as in centuries of old. I find its power may even be more suffocating due to our extreme growth in technology and mass media. Though the posters look different, now they can be posted all over the internet, billboards, television and countless other techniques.

For instance, this Obama ad was a very common ad that could easily be count cascading society nearly everywhere you turned during the presidential campaign. Although off-hand this may not appear propaganda it in fact is. Similar to historical propaganda it utilizes a message of patriotism through indwelling the colors red, white, and blue. If you glance upon both images above you immediately realize that they are filled with our patriotic colors thus instantly instilling a sense of patriotic duty and pride into the viewer. The first ad portrays that Obama is hope, that without Obama as president, we as Americans, have no hope. Obama is more than a color a race or religion he is America and he is Americas hope. Through utilizing the colors of our country both posters, new and old, persuade the audience to instantly respect the poster and all it is saying because red white and blue are the colors pumping through their veins.

These two posters are from two completely different time periods, referring to two completely different events yet equally relating to their time and rendering a message. The first one is from the modern day, threatening the onlooker that your tweets could give away crucial information to an enemy resulting in harsh consequences for those affected. The second poster is almost the same exact poster, except they didn’t have tweeting back then! But essentially stating the same equally threatening message that a little slip of the tongue could cause grave damage and you must keep all thoughts, comments, or tweets to yourself.

Propaganda is clearly prevalent today. It has engaged its sly ways to entrance its modern society but non-the-less achieves its intended duty to convict and convince a society of someone or something. The messages are still just as clear, to vote or not vote for some candidate, to choose or not choose this company, to fight or stay quiet on this issue or that. The issues have changed the candidates have changes the companies have changed but the propaganda, at its root has remained the same. It seems it was used to scare an audience upon reviewing historical propaganda and although society today has somehow cleverly scared us in more subtle ways I am convinced that centuries from now, some English 101 student will be writing a blog about our propaganda today and how much it scares them. Propaganda is a timeless tactic.