COMMAND & CONDITIONING PROPAGANDA

Most commercial advertising does this, except for "soft sell" ads for standard products and "feel good" ads for brands and corporations.

In much political advertising,* persuaders often use this same 5-part pattern of "the pitch": Attention-getting starts with simple "name recognition"; Confidence-Building is very important; Desire-Stimulating refers to the issues discussed (if any), the social (not individual) benefits promised; Urgency and Response focus on a simple act, "Vote for Me. Now." Thus, election campaign rhetoric is usually a form of simple command propaganda.

Eight "magic" words: Currently,** the verbs used in American political campaigns are extremely important because a "loophole" in the law was created when the Supreme Court ruled that "issue ads" run by political parties, corporations, and unions are not subject to federal election campaign spending limits if they did not use words of express advocacy (i.e., use words such as "vote for," "elect," "cast your ballot for," "Smith for Congress," "vote against," "defeat," or "reject").
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** In the 2000 campaign, $500 million was spent on such issue ads. On December 10, 2003, the Supreme Court closed that legal loophole, but said they were "under no illusion" that politicians would stop seeking another way: "Money, like water, always finds an outlet." Within a month, the Associated Press reported: "Issue ads continue despite new legal limits" (January 7, 2004 © Associated Press) .... "Voters might have thought they would be free of issue ads in the weeks leading up to the first contests of the presidential race, thanks to the year-old campaign finance law, but spots by independent groups still fill the airwaves. "Lo and behold, they're alive and well," said Evan Tracey, president of Virginia-based Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks campaign ads.

The Supreme Court upheld restrictions last month that ban ads that mention federal candidates within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election if they are paid for with "soft money" -- unlimited donations from corporations, unions and individuals. The law was meant to crack down on ads by independent groups in the final weeks of federal campaigns that critics argue are disguised as issues but really intended to sway voters by criticizing the candidates.

The commercials by independent groups that are running in states with primaries or caucuses in the next month are exempt because they don't mention federal candidates by name or they are paid for with "hard money," donations that come from individuals and political action committees. "It shows that hard money lives, and that the shift to the ' Tell the candidates ...' language drops the level of personal attacks in the final weeks," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center." For more about this important controversy, see: Issue Ads.
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Conditioning propaganda is designed to mold public opinions, basic assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, myths, and world views, on a long-term basis, as the necessary prelude, climate, or atmosphere for eventually getting a response, later.

Observers disagree on terms here: Jacques Ellul, the French scholar (in his classic study, Propaganda) called this "sub-propaganda"; the Nazi propagandist, Goebbels, called it "basic propaganda"; the Soviet leader, Lenin, called it "political education."

Recently, the terms "consciousness raising" and "awareness building" have been used by various cause groups (anti-abortionists, feminists, environmentalists, civil rights) in the United States.

And, everyone argues over the distinctions and borderlines between "conditioning propaganda" and "indoctrination" and "education."