In his book, The Hidden Persuaders, written in 1957, Vance Packard tells us.

“For example, a show can be too funny for its own good.  That was the sad conclusion of the Philip Morris people who poured millions of dollars into their top-rated comedy show I Love Lucy.  While Lucy because the most popular show in television, Philip Morris sales lagged behind and in face dropped 17 percent.  Other factors involving the brand’s image may have been at work too; but as Tide Magazine [now defunct] reported, “There are those at Philip Morris . . .who subscribe to the idea that and extremely good show might never sell products.  Reason:  You tend to talk about the program during the commercials . . . This raises questions.  Is an advertiser better off with a less than top-rated show in order to get the commercials across?  That observation was made in early 1955.  By 1957 some viewers of the United States television might raise questions themselves.  Were some of the resolutely mediocre shows on television that way by design, to increase the impact of the commercials?”

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POLITICS AND THE IMAGE BUILDERS

HAVE WE BECOME A NATION OF PHONY LEADERS–PEOPLE WHO ARE NO MORE REAL OR WHAT THEY PURPORT THEMSELVES TO BE THAN A TELEVISION ACTOR?  Where are the real people? Whatever happened to them?  Where have the ones with the solutions for the majority gone?  Is the best that we can do for a political leader is a posturing peacock who “looks good” on TV?

“A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.“  Kenneth Boulding, University of Michigan.

The manipulative approach to politics is not a discovery of this century, or even the twentieth century.  Napoleon set up a press bureau that he called his Bureau of Public Opinion. Its function was to manufacture political trends to order.  Machiavelli was another who made some original contributions to thinking in this field.

Manipulation of the people by a tyrant with a controlled society if a fairly simple matter.  The real challenge come in dealing effectively with citizens of a free society who can vote you out of office, or spurn  your solicitation for their support if they are so minded.

Effective political manipulation and mass persuasion in a democracy began in the   1950′s.  The presidential campaign of 1956 reflected the change in the traditional characteristics of American political life.  Riesman with his concept of modern American voters as spectator-consumers of politics and Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn and their mass merchandising lore.

In 1950, The New York World Telegram, posted these headlines in describing the preparations for the 1950 Congressional campaign:  THE HUCKSTERS TAKE OVER GOP CAMPAIGN.  The lead explained that “the politicians are beginning to apply all the smart advertising techniques used by mass production America to merchandise autos, bath sales and lawn mowers.”  By the mid 1950′s both major United States parties had become deeply involved in the use of professional persuaders to help in their image-building problems.

In early 1956 Nation’s Business [a publication of the Chamber of Commerce] posted this chilling assessment of where American politics was headed.  They happily heralded the new, businessman’s approach to politics.  It proclaimed: “Both parties will merchandise their candidates and issues by the same [dishonest and twisted] methods that business has developed to sell goods.  These include scientific selection of appeals; planned repetition. . . .No flag-waving faithfuls will parade the streets.  Instead, corps of volunteers will ring doorbells and telephones. . . .Radio spot announcements and ads will repeat phrases with a planned intensity.  Billboards will push slogans of proven power….Candidates need, in addition to a rich voice and good diction, to be able to look ‘sincerely’ at the TV camera. . . .”

A California persuader of the new school of “build-up artist/Pygmalion” in the 1950′s was Murray Chotiner, a Los Angeles lawyer who groomed Richard Nixon for national stardom and managed Nixon’s 1952 campaign.  Chotiner’s basis technique ws to present the public with two images:  the good guy (his man) and the bad guy (the opponent).  One of the topics he covered in his speech to the forty-eight state chairmen in 1952 was the use of, and defense against, the “smear”; and he told about the art of implying that the opponent has leftish leanings.  he also talked about the techniques of generating the appearance ob public demand and the technique of winning people’s heart with carefully stimulated candor.

Adlai Stevenson summed up the new process best:  “The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process [and to the voters].”

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QUEEN’S CONCLUSION

As a result of all this nonsense, we end up with politicians representing us in Washington and in our home states who are about as effective as breakfast cereal (and also about as nourishing for the quality of our lives).

Instead of debating real issues that impact the lives of real Americans such as ending the War in Afghanistan, poverty and job creation; we have moronic talking heads on corporate owned mainstream media leading political candidates in discussions about what their minister says, whether or not they believe in evolution, and why a particular candidate wears or does not wear a flag pin.

I think it’s time we kicked the ad men, the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street out of American politics and they can take their millionaire sock monkeys with them.

Proclaim the Queen!

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