Propoganda Is...

Propaganda, what is Propaganda? It is simply a mechanism of spreading and promoting planned ideas and directions. It can be used for a good cause or to cause damage. A lot of these mechanisms are used in Advertising and PR.

In various sections in today’s world propaganda is used in business, politics even to impose religious views. Propaganda can be inflicted through ad campaigns, movies, public speech, even subconsciously through social media.

There’s always the misconception of propaganda being only associated with the political scene. However, propaganda has its roots in everything around us, starting from billboards, tv ads we randomly stumble upon to your favourite brand of cereal. Many psychologists believe that propaganda affected our own human choices in life ‘’this is how you get happiness, this is how you can be happy’’ ‘’this is the perfect life’’. People often underestimate the power of propaganda and how it affected all of our surroundings but it’s got its roots to deep into our life’s aspects.

Five Types of Propaganda Used in Advertising

There are five types of propaganda used in advertising:

The first type is called bandwagon. It’s approaching the subject with the “everyone else is doing this or that”. Using admired community figures, celebrities and influencers to portray a certain image in ads making the public attached to their quality of life through a product.

The second type is testimonial. It’s when you use authority figures and trusted calibers in selling a certain product, idea or vision. For example,dentists talking about a certain brand of toothpaste.

Thirdly transfer, attaching an idea or a product to a famous person without actually communicating it, only attaching it to their image.

The fourth type is repetition, it is when the product is repeated by word of mouth at least four times in the advert.

Finally, emotional words is when associating a certain idea or product with a poitive quality or a moral cause like the ‘’ go green’’ campaign, or purchasing metal straws can help the

The Aim of Propaganda in Advertising

The aim of propaganda is to inflict a certain agenda. It can be used in positively mass causes and there’s always a chance of misleading the public and directing them to a planned verdict. Let’s settle on, that a propagandist is always biased to an idea, vision, certain product. Therefore, it gives the subject the impression that they’re making their own decisions weighing the pros and cons and judging for themselves, when in fact they’re being subjected to a set agenda subconsciously dictating their views.

Whether the usage of propaganda is for good or a bad cause, that’s not the question. It’s the powerfulness and the strength of it that is highly concerning; having the power to affect the public opinion is a major asset. The trick is using the truth for your own agenda for one’s own favour. Making sure that when the subject is reviewing their pros and cons, what’s for their own good, they feel corrected and backed up by the facts and the truths of the propaganda. Propaganda in advertisement has a powerful impact, whether having restrictions or high control on the campaigns advertisement, the content is purposeful.

Propaganda in advertisement can have a huge psychological impact on users, campaigns are results of a message that is promoted on a larger scale with outcomes of public belief from what is created. Changing and altering attitudes and beliefs to gain support and trust. People may fall under false pretenses under the propagandist promotion of the message.

Technology and world wide communication supports this cause and are always in tact with advertisiments and promotion. Propaganda can be sent in many types of media such as posters, broadcasts, radio, television.

Bad Impact Caused by Propaganda

There is such thing as bad impact caused by propaganda, and a case will be presented to display this. A cigarette campaign at the end of this essay.

Tv ads claiming that makeup is “flawless finish”, an overweight person watching false claims of weight reduction “a pill to lose weight” are all hand in hand deceitful pr. However, the media is full of people fitting the criteria that would give the effect of perfection rather than the beauty of the norms.

A lack of trust is found in company’s because public relations should be mutually beneficial. But when companies are manipulating events and information to suit their purpose a lack of integrity is found.

People should be self-educated on the issues as to not depend on media for full truths. Such researching products and services and figuring out their own idea of truths regarding an ad or campaign before giving trust. Would people actually do that if they were shielded from meda? Maybe because people would be aware of what they are missing, really the answer is no. The desire to seek out the truth is not there if people are unaware at the beginning. Many events would be isolated and issues and events. Knowledge to our surroundings is a good thing without the media esteem issues would be ideally there to a much less extent.

Without public relations no one would feel the need to inform or educate the public at all regarding events that involve or affect them and the world they live in. Without advertisements companies would not strive to improve their products over the competition thus creating superior products. Without these driving forces in people’s lives there would be an incredible information gap and a lack of creativity. Advertising and public relations are undeniably important aspects of our culture.

Case

Hesham Selim goes public about transgender son

Hesham Selim appeared on the talk show ‘Al Qahera Wal Nas’ ‘Sheikh Al Harra w al Garee2a’

And spoke about his son ‘Nora to Nour’ transition and his support to him. He revealed it on the tv show.

Egyptian actor Hesham Selim has received praise on social media after revealing his 26-yr-old son Nour is finishing the process of physically transitioning to a person and has already socially transitioned to the male gender.

The actor spoke publicly about Nour, formely Noura on local television then went on international tv to show support for one another. To talk about Nour’s transitions and hardships he went through..

‘I thought I wasn’t a normal person, I thought I couldn’t live my life … It was very, very hard,’ Nour told his father. ‘But I learned to love myself and stand on my own two feet, so that no one could tell me I am either right or wrong.’

Nour states from a younger age the difference he has felt towards himself but couldn’t find the language to describe his situation or his feelings.

When he became older of age he began to understand that his body is not in line with who he is. And when he turned 18 he has decided to come forward with this matter to his family.

He also stated that at points in his life, he thought of committing suicide because he found it difficult to face the world, also, he thought that he would bring shame to his famous father and family.’I thought about suicide, because I didn’t feel like a normal person, and I didn’t feel like I would live a normal life. I could see no future for myself,’ says Nour.

Rarely the public showed support for Nour, support for LGBT rights in a conservative Muslim country, Egypt. There were divided opinion about this case.

There were comments on social media that Selim shouldn’t have discussed such private matters publicly. He explained that the reason he decided to address the issue in the show ‘ Sheikh el Hara w el Garee2a’ because he has nothing to hide and wanted to speak truth without shame.

Social media users met the announcement with sympathy towards Nour Selim. And expressed support for Hesham Selim for supporting his son and publicly discussing the topic in a conservative country.

Lebanese pop stars such as Carol Samaha and Elissa, who are known for supporting LGBT rights, expressed respect for Selim via twitter. Egyptian transgender activist Malak Khashef expressed support for the move, saying “This is a great move, a noticeable development in the transgender cause and one step forward towards public acceptance and forming a supportive base,” Khashef wrote on her Facebook page.

Selim is the first Egyptian celebrity to announce publicly that he has a transgender son. Nour’s is has a known family in showbusiness. His grandfather was legendary Egyptian footballer and president of Al-Ahly Club Saleh Salim, and his uncle is director Khaled Salim, who is married to the film star Yousra.

LGBT rights organizations have shed light on the situation of transgender people in Egypt from this case. Religious institutions such as Al Azhar and Coptic Orthodox Church have said that it is permissible for sex reassignment operations if there is a medical cause. Transgender people can legally change their gender in Egypt, however, it’s not an easy process.

Hesham Selim stated that Nour was boyish as a child, avoiding feminine clothing and that he took Nour to a psychiatrist. Talking about hormones and issues beyond his age, he stated that he would stand by his son through the process.

Also, according to Egyptian Streets, after Nour came out as transgender, the two faced struggles. One is Nour being upset when his father misgendered him referring to him as a girl. Egyptian authorities refused to change Nour’s gender in his identity documents prior to the transition so it was restricted even if it’s legal in Egypt.

LGBT rights rose to the center of Egypt after a gay couple were arrested and charged with ‘violation of honor by threat’ and ‘practicing immoral and indecent behavior’. The couple’s lawyer demanded to be released as homosexuality was not a crime. However the judge ruled that both had offended religion and its standards. This was during Hosni Mobarak presidency. Also cases, like the ‘Mashrou3 Leila’s’ concert, when a rainbow flag rose in the concert held a lot of controversy and backfires regarding the public.

Hesham Selim’s appearance on tv led another wave of support for LGBTQ rights in Egypt and social media. He got a lot of praises regarding this cause.

To conclude, Egypt is witnessing a discussion about this taboo, regarding Nour Selims case. This is phenomenally new to the society from a celebrities side and quite unorthodox. This case has shed light in a new matter showing highly supportive side of the general public regarding Nour Selim’s transition.

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