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News :: Miscellaneous |
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American Flag or Corporate War Logo? Part One |
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by Imagineallthepeoplelivinglifeinpeace repost b
Email: betpower (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
07 Jan 2002
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Sadly and ironically, the more American flags are waving everywhere, the less we have our true America.
This is a summary of the government's war marketing strategies, tactics, developers, and media distribution channels. |
As someone who has worked in advertising and marketing for over two decades, I have felt compelled since 9-11 to observe and analyze how the U.S. government through Big Media is using the art of advertising and the science of marketing – in particular, the strategic use of the iconography of the American flag and an accompanying motto – to win and sustain support from the American people for its long and continuing, global "War on Terrorism."
What are we to make of the phenomenon of American flags that are flying everywhere – on cars, attached to SUVs or pasted to the sides of minivans, on homes, highways, storefronts, mailboxes, light posts, t-shirts, key rings, billboards, buildings, in music videos, in movie trailers, ads, and even on "patriotic fashions" and red-white-and-blue outdoor lights instead of traditional Christmas decorations? Results of a September 15 Gallup survey showed 82% of U.S. citizens polled said they had flown or would fly the American flag in response to the 9-11 attacks (see "Marketers Rally Around the Flag – Patriotic Messages Abound, but Many Fear Jingoism" at: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=32946 ). What started as a genuine expression of shock, grief, fear, empathy and solidarity with those who lost their lives on 9-11 has turned into, not so much a wave of heartfelt patriotism, as into a massive cheerleading display for an immoral, unjust war. Is this the sort of hypocritical, emotional religiosity of flag-waving that masks an ugly, killer lust for revenge on the "enemy" as described by Mark Twain in his masterful "War Prayer" (you can read it at: http://quanta-gaia.org/MarkTwain/warPrayer.html) or is this something even more nefarious – since marketing has come a very long way since Twain’s time 100 years ago?
Selling the "War on Terrorism" to the American public And selling out America at the same time
Could that "something" be the strategic selling to Americans of the "rightness" of killing innocent human beings for corporate profitability? The product we are being sold is the "War on Terrorism" – a very expensive product, and a highly profitable one.
What’s more, along the way to great corporate profitability from war, could vengeful, gullible, self-indulgent Americans-in-denial be colluding with a far-right Administration to destroy the very soul of American democracy and freedom itself? Is all this being furthered by cynical marketers beholden to, or employed by, the Bush Administration? We are told this is "America’s New War," yet how can it be "new" when the same old human carnage results, as in every other war? The reason it is "new" is that this is a lawless war which breaks all the rules – undeclared, lacking a focus against one specific country, waged against a concept instead of against a nation state, lacking the limits of a timetable or endpoint (see Gore Vidal’s comments on waging "a Perpetual War" at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1124-04.htm ) and conducted outside the international laws against war crimes set down in the Geneva Convention. Bush and Ashcroft have consistently communicated they are above the law, whether those be the laws of our land expressed in the U.S. Constitution or the laws of international bodies, such as the United Nations.
If 80+% of Americans look the other way, support the war, back whatever Bush does – including rescind our civil liberties and Constitutional protections, don’t want to know the truth, and believe everything Big Media brainwashing tells them, does the universal law of "what goes around comes around" mean that we get back what we dish out – thus, in return for global bullying, soon the "land of the free and the home of the brave" will be just a romantic memory?
It’s in our own best interests as citizens of the U.S. to uncover the ways the Bush Administration is hurting each one of us psychologically, emotionally, financially, and legally at this time, as well as how it is causing immense suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of Afghani and Iraqi families, in its lust for worldwide economic dominance.
How is this a corporate war?
The Bush/Bin Laden families and Cheney personally profit as directors and investors in the war construction-related company Carlyle Group. Bush and Cheney benefit politically as well (as evident in public approval ratings since 9-11). U.S. military and energy companies make tons of money through control of oil and gas reserves under the Caspian Sea, as well as through production of fighter planes and weapons of destruction. The best delivery transport of the coveted energy reserves is through pipelines to be built across Afghanistan, only possible after U.S.-conquest of the country and dominance of the region is achieved. (If you have any doubt that this is a war for oil, check out the huge and numerous American flags flying at your local Mobil, Exxon, or CITGO station.) Also come huge profits from rebuilding the same area the U.S. has bombed to smithereens. Much has been written about the profit motivation of Carlyle Group for this war, and a great summary by Steve Grey, "Bush and Cheney Were Involved!" can be found at: http://www.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=110641 .
If we can believe the polls showing that most Americans support Bush and his "War on Terrorism," then it seems the marketing campaign to sell Americans on this never-ending war is working. My interest, as a marketer of conscience, is in figuring out how and why.
The marketing arm of the U.S. government
The Nation, in its January 7/14, 2002 issue, profiles the "Big Ten" media and entertainment giants – its Big Ten Media Chart is accessible at: http://www.thenation.com . These ten conglomerates dominate the media worldwide and have increasingly blurred the line between news and entertainment to near-invisibility. Through dumbed-down journalism reeking with bias and blatant in its omissions, filled with the marketing of patriotism and outright lies in service to the corporate-military U.S. government, it is Big Media that controls everything we see, think, and feel through its tentacles of sub-corporations. It is Big Media – delivering most of the "entertainment" and "news" we get – that has become nothing more than the marketing arm of the U.S. government. It is Big Media, since 9-11, which has been aggressively transforming the original meaning of the American flag (emblem of the unity of the states in democracy, freedom, justice, equality, and rights for all) into crass corporate branding for the "War on Terrorism." The Big Ten Media include:
AT&T Corporation (television; movies; radio; music; local, long-distance, and cell phones, the WB, HBO, Cinemax, Court TV, Comedy Central, E!, Warner Brothers, Quincy Jones Entertainment Co., etc.). Revenues: $66 billion
AOL/Time Warner (magazines, movies, music, books, television, internet, sports, theme parks, Sportsline radio, Time, Life, People, Mad, DC Comics, Atlantic, Elektra, Columbia House, Warner Brothers, Time-Life Books, Book-of-the-Month, AOL, CompuServe, Netscape, Atlanta Braves & Hawks, etc.). Revenues: $36.2 billion
Liberty Media Corporation (magazines, movies, sports, music, internet, radio, television, telephony, The Nature Company stores, Discovery Channel stores, Primedia, USA Films, Gramercy Pictures, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Ticketmaster, Citysearch, Sprint, Motorola, etc.). Revenues: $42 billion
Viacom, Inc. (movies; books; internet; radio; television; magazines; theme parks; live entertainment venues; musical rights; exclusive advertising rights on buses, subways, trains, kiosks, billboards in NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, Philly, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta and 82 other U.S. cities as well as cities in other countries; BET Design Studio, the U.S. Postal Service is one of its clients, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV Films, Blockbuster, Simon & Schuster, Scribner, Pocket Books, The Free Press, MTVi, MTV.com and VH1.com, MarketWatch.com, CBS Radio Network, CBS, UPN, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Showtime, BET, etc.). Revenues: $20 billion
Walt Disney Company (magazines, movies, resorts/themed entertainment, books, television, sports, movies, radio, theatrical productions, stakes in NFL.com and Movies.com, Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Channel, ESPN Classic, Buena Vista, Touchstone, ABC News, Miramax, ESPN Radio, etc.). Revenues: $25.4 billion
SONY (television, music, movies, internet, broadcast and electronic equipment and games, PlayStation, insurance and credit financing, Telemundo, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Loews Theatres, etc.). Revenues: $53.8 billion
Bertelsmann (television, internet, books, music, newspapers, magazines, radio, greeting cards, trading cards, Europe’s biggest TV broadcaster and film producer, Lycos.com in Europe, The Travel Channel, largest U.S. book publisher, Random House, Knopf, Vintage, Bantam Doubleday Dell, Arista and Windham Records, etc.). Revenues: $16.5 billion
Vivendi Universal (books, magazines, internet, theme parks, television, movies, music, newspapers, cell-phone services in France and leading book publisher in France, bottled water, landfill sites, water and waste-water treatment for municipalities, owns 220 advertising agencies in 65 countries, iWon.com, Universal Studios Hollywood, SEGA GameWorks, USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, Sundance Channel, Propaganda Films, etc.). Revenues: $37.2 billion
General Electric (internet, sports/live venues, television, aircraft engines, home appliances, cars, computers, x-ray and ultrasound machines, MR and CT scanners, retail and financial services, healthcare services and insurance, Polo.com, Radio City Music Hall, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, A&E, AMC, Bravo, etc.). Revenues: $129.9 billion
News Corporation – Murdoch family (television, books, newspapers, movies, sports, music, TV Guide, Weekly Standard, the Simpsons, X-Files and other Fox properties, National Geographic Channel, Twentieth Century Fox, HarperCollins, NY Post, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, etc.). Revenues: $11.6 billion
Bush makes most powerful woman in advertising part of the State Department
To craft its messages, create its war branding, and move its communications through the many distribution channels of Big Media here in the States and strategically in the Middle East – presently, in Afghanistan and Pakistan – Bush put Charlotte Beers in charge of the "War on Terrorism" propaganda effort. He appointed her to this position in March 2001 (N.B.: well before the "surprise" 9-11 attacks) and charged her with developing marketing communications for the "new" war immediately after 9-11. Beers, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, was appointed Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Because of her Madison Avenue salesmanship on behalf of domestic products like Head & Shoulders, and not for any expertise in policy or politics, Beers was chosen to craft the messages that will help the U.S. win its "War on Terrorism" (see "Charlotte Beers and the Selling of America" at: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=33340 ).
Beers has said she needs to "redefine who America is" to Muslims around the world, and to "communicate what is the value of our system." She told Advertising Age magazine, "What are our beliefs? What do the words freedom and tolerance mean? We have people who are not our friends define America in negative terms. It is time for us to re-ignite the understanding of America." (See "An Advertising Call to Arms" at: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=33210 ). In other words, a wealthy advertising mogul is going to tell us all – including the people we are pummeling to death – what is the true meaning of America and what are the true beliefs of Americans like you and me. Among the themes Beers has communicated to Afghanis via broadcasts from a special radio-studio plane and airdropped leaflets is that the U.S. is not in Afghanistan to harm innocent people (see: "Turning Over a New Leaflet" at: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2058800 ). No wonder she has come under instant fire from the press, including the ad industry trade press. Talk about false advertising! The criticism from industry analysts continues (see "U.S. Government Takes Liberties with Facts" at: http://www.boston.com/dailynews/004/wash/U_S_government_takes_liberties:.shtml ) since Beers keeps creating tabloid-worthy leaflets using manipulated photos of Bin Laden and false quotes from suspected terrorists. Although Beers is the head honcho of manipulating perceptions of the U.S. and its "War on Terrorism" abroad, she is not the only ad exec, nor is hers the only agency, involved in war propaganda profiteering.
On September 17, 2001, just a few short days after the 9-11 attacks, President and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) O. Burtch Drake faxed a letter to all AAAA members along with a copy of his "Viewpoint" letter to the editor that appeared in Advertising Age on September 17, 2001 (a search on the Nexis service at: http://www.nexis.com should yield the entire issue and you can find the letter within). A pacifist friend of mine who owns her own ad agency in New England was disturbed and concerned to receive this fax on 9-17 from Drake. In it, he requested her agency, as a member of AAAA, to assist in the war effort by volunteering through the Advertising Council – the ad industry’s pro bono arm – to create "relevant messages to be made available to the media" and to "produce PSAs (public service announcements) on behalf of a non-profit or government agency." She correctly read this as a request for her to volunteer her staff to help create war advertising, since Drake’s letter mentioned Pearl Harbor and how advertising, marketing, and media industries had joined together back then to form the War Advertising Council, the precursor of today’s Ad Council. O. Burtch Drake can be reached at AAAA, 405 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10174-1801, (212) 682-2500. Although his cover letter is not online, you may be able to get a copy from Ad Council’s Peggy Conlon at (212) 984-1987 or at pconlon (at) adcouncil.org .
Then, in mid-November, the Ad Council issued an appeal for people in the ad biz to give money, with an aim of raising $3 million to fund the Council’s Campaign for Freedom, a marketing push to "help restore Americans’ confidence and spirit during the country’s war on terrorism." (See "Ad Council Wants Personal Donations – Plans to Hit on Marketing Professionals for War Effort Cash" at: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=33450 ).
In addition to employing the services of advertising professionals, the Bush Administration undertook some severe media management through public relations and movie industry pros, as well. The steps taken included: keep critics of the war off the air completely, bring the press on board including through self-censorship, strategize with media moguls in movie studios, and try to harness foreign as well as domestic media. For analysis of the Bush PR offensive, see "Warning: Media Management Now in Effect" at: http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1115-10.htm . Among the PR firms engaged by the Administration in October was Rendon Group, with offices in Boston and Washington, which got a $400,000/4-month deal (with an option to continue work in ’02) from the Pentagon to help make the U.S. look good while bombing Afghanis (see "War Needs Good Public Relations," by Norman Solomon, at: http://www.fair.org/media-beat/011025.html ).
Who’s a true patriot, who is not?
I think it is important for Americans to have the information necessary to resist media manipulation of our national emblem and the positive values therein; in effect, to be able to determine when Old Glory is being displayed appropriately versus when its deep spiritual and national meanings are desecrated commercially to boost an advertiser’s profits or to morph into war propaganda for huge corporate profit. Rather than being unpatriotic, I think of myself as an authentic American patriot, as Mark Twain was, when I question the underlying motivation for the current flag-waving and when I show concern about widespread flag-desecration through commercialism.
Indeed, abuse of the flag as a material object or as an icon is what is actually anti-American. But for Big Media to do so is a necessary step if they are to help the government twist the values of U.S. citizens into a cynical, anti-humanism that supports genocidal killing on a massive scale for no other conceivable reason than dominance of lucrative Middle East oil and gas reserves beneath the Caspian Sea.
The National Flag Code, U.S. Code Title 4 addresses the proper and improper display and uses of the flag (especially see Chapter 1, Sections 3 and 176 and the complete code at: http://www.steve4u.com/flagcode.htm . See also an article from ABC-TV minimizing the whole improper-use-and-display issue, at: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/92101_nw_flag.html ). Violations of the code are subject to fine as misdemeanors and although the federal government does not impose penalties, the states may.
For example, included in the code are regulations that address destroying the flag, using it for advertising purposes, using it as a receptacle, fastening it or displaying it in a way in which it gets wet or can be easily torn or damaged – all simply not to be allowed (when necessary, disposal is allowed by burning). Yet millions of Americans in mid-September discarded with their trash the printed flag inserted like an advertising supplement in major daily newspapers across the country, not to mention all those raggedy flags flapping on cars and trucks. And don’t get me started on all those advertisers pushing the flag on suddenly trendy "patriotic fashions."
Tens of thousands of people filled shopping bags printed to look like American flags in the last months of 2001 – clearly forbidden in Section 3 of the Flag Code: not to be used as "a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise …". This is perhaps the most telling and summary image of our time – the American flag with shopping-bag handles, morphed into a bag to carry products bought in a "patriotic" frenzy of consumption. Big Media ran that one up the flagpole this holiday season in order to raise flaccid corporate profits – and they saw many Americans salute, lemming-like. For a look at the American flag shopping bag used on 15,000 posters distributed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown in October 2001, go to: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/39/scrapbook/7.html . For an article about December’s holiday shopping as economic patriotism or moral duty, see "Shop Til Bin Laden Drops" at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1223-02.htm .
Now that I’ve noted the Big Ten Media distribution channels and some of the developers of this corporate war branding campaign, what follows is a summary of what I’ve deduced about the specific marketing tactics of this "War on Terrorism," along with my professional opinion about strategies employed by the government and its marketing/advertising agencies communicating to us through Big Media. I’ll also give you my opinion about the level of success of this marketing campaign so far. Included are links to additional information to enlighten you, and to support and further this analysis. I hope this will be a jumping-off point for further scrutiny and exposure of post-9-11 government/corporate/military marketing tactics; that this torch will be taken up fearlessly by advertising industry trade-publication writers and commentators. Now more than ever, what is needed in the U.S. is rigorous self-examination resulting in responsible action that will move our society and the world forward towards balance, peace, and healthy global citizenship.
Strong corporate identity and product brand: logo and tagline
A comparison of the U.S. flag and McDonald’s golden arches as global branding mechanisms – their logos and taglines – is an interesting and fruitful undertaking. After all, these are the two major visual icons that currently dominate our entire visual landscape in the States. Through aggressive positioning by the media – in the natural outdoor environment and in public spaces (communications to the collective nation through signage on the streets, billboards on the highways, at the movies, at stadium sporting events, at concerts, at outdoor festivals) as well as inside our private homes (communications to individuals through television, radio, music, videos, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, direct mail, and the Internet) – the flag and the golden arches are now the two icons we see the most often, on any given day. Increasingly, the U.S. flag and the golden arches are also becoming dominant visual symbols in other countries as well, especially in newer democracies and other allies of the West.
Why develop a brand? Simply put, having a strong brand is great for business. Brand strategy and brand management are central to the success of any business plan. A brand offers a promise or guarantee to consumers of value or of positive results when consumers spend their money. This promise is worth money to the originator/owner of the brand – big time! A branded product commands a higher price. Wall Street knows this and it values brands. After all, monopoly power is built because of strong branding.
Brand loyalty is the most beautiful thing to corporations of all – the Holy Grail! It means consumers are hooked for many years, even life, on a product, service, technology, or experience; and they keep buying it. In the U.S., people consume brand relationships several times every day. In these relationships, there is trust won from the consumer who comes to believe both tangible and emotional rewards will be provided because of their loyalty to a brand. Keeping consumers repeatedly buying a branded product, service, or experience really pays off for the originator/owner of the brand.
The purpose of a brand identity is to establish a corporation as the dominant reaper of profits in all markets through the sale of first, its message and then, its products, services, technologies, or life experiences. If we understand that the United States is a corporate-military complex with an Administration and ruling government seeking extraordinary profits both for the entire complex itself and personally for the individuals situated in high leadership roles (be they government, military, or corporate), then we come to know why a "War on Terrorism" that has slaughtered thousands of innocent Afghanis instead of bringing the perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks to justice is, in reality, a corporate war for monopoly power and not a just or even a logical war (if any war could honestly be such). A corporate war, by definition, is a war for obtaining massive profits. Especially because it is unsavory and destructive, it needs to have a strong brand identity behind it in order to be bought by consumers. Building this brand identity takes persistence, repetition, and consistency on the part of the originator of the brand.
Do you doubt that you are a "consumer" of the "War on Terrorism"? Think again, then, for it is your tax money you are personally spending to pay for this war. Increasingly, younger generations in the U.S. have been socialized to be boundless consumers. To spend and to develop brand loyalty is to feel good and to think of oneself as secure, successful, and cool. The very generations (high-school and college-age) who have been on the forefront of anti-war movements to oppose U.S. foreign policy in the past are the central target market for corporate war branding today. In addition, the lucrative market of age 15-34 males is heavily targeted. Don’t you think the government needs your buy-in to this war? You are its client, its customer and consumer. The underlying message to you through all of Big Media is this: "The War on Terrorism: Buy It!"
If that’s the case, then according to successful marketing principles, you’d better be provided with a pretty strong promise in return from the brand. What’s the promise of this branded "War on Terrorism"? Probably several: that you will no longer have to be afraid after a horrific attack that killed thousands of Americans, that you will be safe, that you will continue to prosper, and – most persuasively, I think, of all – that you will remain in the mainstream, in the majority opinion, popular with others on the "winning side." United We Stand. Who wants to be a minority, an outsider with a contrarian opinion, in a scary time like this?
Instead, you get the promise of a fatherly government to take care of you, to protect you from perceived external threats and also, from itself. If you are for the "War on Terrorism," the government will not detain, investigate, or punish you – and, to guarantee against your deepest fear – you, your family members, and friends won’t be killed. "Trust us," this critical brand relationship demands, "Trust us with your way of life and with your life itself."
Now for tactics. There are two parts to any brand identity: a logo and a tagline.
A logo is: a visual symbol, image, design element, or icon that identifies and represents a business venture or corporation.
A tagline is: a copy line, either a sentence or a phrase, communicating the brand essence of a business venture or corporation. It is a brief positioning statement for the business venture and it accompanies the logo (usually printed below the logo) in an advertisement or on other marketing communications.
Eventually, after repeated display of both the logo and tagline together, the logo is able to stand alone without the tagline, and still communicate the intended, underlying message. For example, if you see the GE logo on its own, you will certainly remember "We Bring Good Things to Life." Or, if you see the Pepsi name and logo design, you will recall "The Pepsi Generation," even if the copy line does not appear.
Similarly, it is the goal of the "War on Terrorism" marketing campaign to have "United We Stand (In Our Support For the War)" register in your mind whenever you see the image of the American flag. Especially effective is the unwitting display of the flag by individuals everywhere and its accompanying patriotic emotionalism – how’s that for viral marketing? "America the Beautiful – Pass it On," a patriotic movie trailer/60-second advertisement commanded me in the Cinemark on three recent trips to the movies, while emotional images of Americans and the flag (to a soundtrack of "America the Beautiful") attempted to move the audience to tears before the feature presentation began.
The flag of a people, symbolic of their values of liberty and justice for all, is co-opted and transformed into a logo for U.S. corporations and high-standing government individuals who will profit enormously with the Bush Administration and its global "War on Terrorism."
Of course, as John Lennon told us in "Imagine," the absence of nationalism is a pre-requisite for world peace ("Imagine there’s no country, it isn’t hard to do. / Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too."). So, the American flag – or any flag – bespeaks a nationalistic war mentality where domination is the endgame – especially in our country where its push for economic and political globalization drives the President of the USA to aspire to one day become President of the Earth. For a revealing press account of the U.S. flag representing an emotion of patriotism versus an emotion of blood-thirsty nationalism and conquest, see the Orlando Sentinel, "Is Flag Fever Patriotism or Darker Stuff?" reposted at: http://www.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=100295 . You decide.
Just how are the government and its marketing agencies able to achieve the manipulation of the American people to maintain this psychological coup? "Look out kid, they keep it all hid," sang Bob Dylan in 1965 in " Subterranean Homesick Blues" – lyrics at: http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/subterranean.html . That’s why it’s important to expose what is happening.
© Copyright January 2002, Bet Power. Everyone may copy and distribute this article or parts of it verbatim, but changing it is not allowed. For more information, send an email to: betpower (at) yahoo.com
Go to part two: http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3669&group=webcast
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See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=115408&group=webcast
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