Áróður og markaðsetning

Does Using The Word 'Propaganda' Help Corporations?

Marketing is propaganda. Positioning propaganda as distinct from other forms of marketing is state-of-the-art persuasion.

The definition of Propaganda varies greatly by source. The Catholic Church coined the word “propaganda” in 1622 within the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which was commissioned by Pope Gregory XV. One of Pope Gregory’s accountants came to the conclusion that it was more cost effective to teach Catholicism than to invade and force conversion. The accountant had the insight to recognize that a territory could be acquired less expensively by converting people’s minds. It might take more time, but if you convert the minds, the bodies will follow. And, converting minds is less expensive than physically enforcing new sovereignty.

The word propaganda has radically changed during the 20th Century. In the Introduction to the re-release of Edward Barnays’ Propaganda, Mark Crispin Miller explains, “Prior to World War One, the word propaganda was little-used in English, except by certain social activists, and close observers of the Vatican; and, back then, propaganda tended not to be the damning term we know today.”

Many people see propaganda as marketing. Many Americans are waking up from a propaganda-induced coma yelling things like, “They lied! They packaged a lie and they sold it to me.” Great. Many of these same folks then rant about the evils of propaganda. Their anger is long overdue. But, bashing propaganda strengthens the control of the world’s greatest oppressor, our present form of world government, Corporatocracy.