Marketing, Advertising, and Propaganda

Marketing, Advertising, and Propaganda follow a similar theme: get people to believe that they need, want, or desire (demand) a particular good, service, or idea. The people trying to sell the good, service, or idea do not coerce potential followers into believing, but rather reach the masses on an emotional level through the use of visual aids, demonstrations, and speech's, among other various ways to communicate. Advertising and Propaganda are small aspects of the Marketing scheme. Both inform or draw attention to a good, service, or idea but do not involve the many crucial steps needed for the completion of a final product. Marketing however, is the process in which a good, service, or idea is created and is eventually distributed to the public through some form of transaction. For example, Marketing consists of creating new products, gathering data, figuring out cost effectiveness, and ultimately getting the good, service, or idea to customers. In contrast, Advertising and Propaganda do not consider to long sequence of events in which a final product is produced.

The "War on Terror" is a mixture of both Marketing and Propaganda. A generic example would be: an antagonist party disrupting/threatening the lives of a protagonist party. In this case, the protagonist party must not only retaliate but must also have some form of understanding to the antagonist perspective. Marketing comes into play because the "War on Terror" is a combination of very delicate issues in which many lives are at stake. The Protagonist party needs a plan in order to resolve to issues in the most efficient and effective way that satisfies the largest amount of people. Propaganda is used for emotional reasons to help back up a particular point of view. However, Propaganda can be dangerous because it is biased and plays on human emotion (very, very dangerous. Think Rationally).