I like to think of advertising as commercial propaganda. That is technically what it is. Whereas political propaganda’s purpose may be to influence people to support a political belief, commercial propaganda is to influence people to support a commercial enterprise.
People tend to think of political propaganda as something from World War 2 and authoritarian regimes. But it was used in the West and it never went away. It just became more sophisticated over time and a part of that was re-branding it to “spin” or “public relations”. The original word is useful because it is accurate and it highlights the obvious negative consequences of the practice.
I like to think of advertising as commercial propaganda. That is technically what it is. Whereas political propaganda’s purpose may be to influence people to support a political belief, commercial propaganda is to influence people to support a commercial enterprise.
People tend to think of political propaganda as something from World War 2 and authoritarian regimes. But it was used in the West and it never went away. It just became more sophisticated over time and a part of that was re-branding it to “spin” or “public relations”. The original word is useful because it is accurate and it highlights the obvious negative consequences of the practice.