Pentagon Commissions its PR Contractors to Argue Against Ban on U.S. Propaganda

[bigtree]

from PR Watch: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6306


Military Takes Aim at U.S. Propaganda Ban

July 30, 2007

In preparing its marketing study commissioned by the U.S. military, the RAND Corporation sought the advice of PR advisers including from Burson-Marsteller, Weber Shandwick, J.D. Power, the Rendon Group, and the Lincoln Group. The report called for a review of the Smith-Mundt Act, which bans government propaganda aimed at U.S. audiences, claiming that it put the military at a "competitive disadvantage". Paige Craig, from the Lincoln Group, complained to PR Week that "it's almost embarrassing to sit here and realize we've got the talent and ability to counter what the adversary makes; it's simply a matter of policy."


Another account: http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/673768/Comms-pros-consult-US-military-report/


Comms pros consult on US military report

Ted McKenna PR Week USA Jul 30 2007 08:17

ARLINGTON, VA: The RAND Corporation consulted with a number of top PR and marketing experts when creating a recently released report urging the US military to think of itself as a brand that must ensure its communications are met with appropriate actions.

The $400,000 report, "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation," which was commissioned by the US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and is available at www.rand.org, discussed how the military could effectively use corporate branding and communications strategies and techniques for operations in Iraq and elsewhere.

{snip}

DBD Worldwide chairman Keith Reinhard, also consulted for the report, agreed that government agencies are embracing corporate communications principles, but he said funding for their adoption remains generally too low.

While insurgent forces in Iraq and elsewhere have done a good job projecting or "shaping" their global image via the use of multimedia online, including videos of "jihadis," cell phone messages, and even video games, US policies such as the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act - which prohibits the government from directing propaganda at US audiences - prevent the US military from engaging as extensively and effectively as it could with an online audience, said the report.

Paige Craig, ex-president and now a board member of the Lincoln Group, which is conducting polls in Iraq to study the attitudes and perceptions of Iraqis on rule of law, support for violent groups, and other issues, said US military adversaries have great propaganda.

"It doesn't look as flashy as something you'd find on Madison Avenue, but it's very effective," she said. "It's almost embarrassing to sit here and realize we've got the talent and ability to counter what the adversary makes; it's simply a matter of policy."

[tom_paine]

1. And the Old Soviet Union arises from the ashes here in Imperial Amerika. Amazing.

Yes, refraining from directing propaganda at our own people does, in fact, put us at a disadavantage with the tyrannical and enslaved countries who have no such ban nor compunction.

THAT IS WHAT SEPERATES US FROM BEING ONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES, NOT CELLPHONES NOR 500-CHANNEL CABLE NOR FULL BELLIES!

Damnit, was the 224 1/2 years of American Freedom an aberration, a hiccup, a burp in human history? Now are restoring to humanity's natural condition, tyranny and virtual slavery?

I do not want to believe this, but yet again we embrace the tactics of our Cold War enemies with a certain relish.

[bigtree]

2. thing is,

they're already doing it. They just want to have the retroactive cover of a change in the law.

It's a given that whatever they spread overseas trickles into the U.S. market anyway.


Controversial PR group wins contract in Iraq
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-09-26-media-contract_x.htm

[tom_paine]

3. I know. But doing it on the sly vs. openly and publicly declaring support

This, too, is the difference between Free Nations and Enslaved or Totalitarian nations.

Our nation nor the world will ever be a utopia, though I would bet there are some alternate universes where we've made a good bit more progress than we have in this quantum eigenstate.

Having said that, in a dangerous world filled with human beings, we who are known to have a huge range of personality types from Mother Theresa and Alvbert Schweitzer to Bush, Cheney, Pinochet on the "moderatly evil" all the way up to Hitler and Stalin, requires some bad things to sometimes be done in our names to further a larger good cause.

I know, I know, this I a dangerous & slippery slope, but follow me here:

Free Nations know that it is impossible for a nation to be 100% moral & pure and survive. However, the bad things that Free Nations do out of necessity (we can argue specific cases until eternity, but I am speaking of the larger issue here), they hide with shame.

Totalitarian Nations make the bad stuff like torture national policy, proudly avow it and ratify it with popular support, or at least semi-popular support (like 26%, if you know what I mean).

Big difference there, and that is why the shamefully covered up and disavowed shit, which was PLENTY bad, like Chile 1972 or Iran 1953 or Guatemala 1954, of Free Nations doesn't even hold a candle in brutality and sheer numbers to Totalitarian Nations, such as Khmer Rouge Cambodia or the obvious charnel houses of Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Maoist China.

Because they don't have to HIDE what they are doing (and Imperial Amerika is now beginning to tranistion dangerously into one of these types of nations), they are freer to "scale up", particularly on the domestic front.

So yes, I understand your point but my response is the difference between doing a thing that is necessary but shameful vs. embracing the evil of doing the shameful thing openly and proudly for ulterior motive and personal/politicial/power gain.

[bigtree]

6. you explained that well

It's interesting and disturbing that many in the U.S. have always postured as if there was some sort of moral superiority to our government's actions, and have redefined that morality downward as their motivations became more sinister and self-serving. I think many other countries actually believed in that elevated character that we pretended behind our swaggering imperialism. But, with all of the competing interests from the emergent societies around the world who've become self-sufficient outside of our influence and protection, there really can't be any propaganda from the U.S. which has any persuading effect at all outside of our own citizen's perception here at home. They can tell themselves (and us) that our ship isn't sinking, but we can only hold our breaths for so long.

[babylonsister]

4. Sigh. Rec'd. nt

[bigtree]

8. Sigh. Kicked'd. nt

[Enrique]

5. I can only imagine what they've got sitting on the shelf

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7. coordinating with Elizabeth Cheney's Iran 'regime'change' office

sell anything