Download name calling

BANDWAGON
Method
Make it appear that many people have joined the cause already, and that they are having lots of fun or getting
significant advantage.
Show that those who join early will get the better prizes, such as positions of authority or other advantages.
Link it to morality and values, showing that those who join sooner are more moral and pretty much better
people all around.
Make a loud noise. Use bright colors. Play a fanfare. Become impossible to miss. Be in-your-face until they join
up.
Example
A political party holds a rally with much flag-waving and razz-a-ma-tazz.
A new religious group ensures all of its members attend services and become active participants in recruiting
new members.
Discussion
The Bandwagon uses social evidence to legitimize itself and become attractive. It plays heavily on the need for
belonging, making the group a desirable place to be. It may also use the scarcity principle, showing that it is
better to join sooner or later.
The term 'bandwagon' came from the Temperance movement, where an open wagon would literally have a band
on it and drive around town picking up drunks who would symbolically 'get on the wagon' of alcohol-free (and
religious) living.
Bandwagon:
Bandwagon is one of the most common techniques in both wartime and peacetime and plays an
important part in modern advertising. Bandwagon is also one of the seven main propaganda
techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938. Bandwagon is an appeal to the
subject to follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well. Bandwagon propaganda is,
essentially, trying to convince the subject that one side is the winning side, because more people
have joined it. The subject is meant to believe that since so many people have joined, that victory is
inevitable and defeat impossible. Since the average person always wants to be on the winning side,
he or she is compelled to join in. However, in modern propaganda, bandwagon has taken a new twist.
The subject is to be convinced by the propaganda that since everyone else is doing it, they will be left
out if they do not. This is, effectively, the opposite of the other type of bandwagon, but usually
provokes the same results. Subjects of bandwagon are compelled to join in because everyone else is
doing so as well. When confronted with bandwagon propaganda, we should weigh the pros and cons
of joining in independently from the amount of people who have already joined, and, as with most
types of propaganda, we should seek more information.
GLITTERING
GENERALITIES
Advertisers often use words that stir up certain emotions in us. Sometimes, these words glitter and sparkle to
attract our eye, or sometimes they make us angry or repulsed.
“NEW!” . . . “Fresh” . . . “Pure” . . . “Home-made.”
Often these words are used in a vague way; they don’t give us specific details: How new? How fresh? Pure
what? Made in whose home?
We could call these words “glittering generalities” because they use words that glitter and sparkle, while only
stating generalities. That is, they give us a general, or vague sense of what they are trying to sell; they just
LOOK good. Glittering generalities are used for their emotional value, not their logical value.
Example: “Pure, fresh, mountain spring water. Bottled especially for you in Utah from only our purest mountain
springs.”
When you read an ad like that, it’s good to ask some questions: What makes mountain spring water better than
Midwestern spring water? What makes this water fresher than other water? What makes it pure? How did they
bottle it “especially for you?” And so on. Lots of questions, but the ad doesn’t answer any of them. It only gives
you glittering generalities.
Example: “Miracle Diet Tea! Loose weight just by drinking tea! Our Miracle Diet Tea helps you to lose weight
by absorbing most of the fat you eat before it is digested. Studies have shown that Miracle Diet Tea has helped
millions of Americans! Thousands of doctors attest to the effectiveness of Miracle Diet Tea!”
What are some questions you could ask about this example?
1. What does it mean by “absorbing most of the fat?”
2. How much tea do you have to drink for it to do this?
3. How many people were in these studies?
4. HOW has Miracle Diet Tea helped millions of Americans? (it didn’t say they lost weight)
5. How did these doctors attest to the effectiveness of Miracle Diet Tea? (maybe Miracle Diet Tea Company
sent letters to a thousand doctors saying: “if you DON’T think our product helps loose weight, send us a ten
page letter saying why. By not responding, the doctors attested to the quality of Miracle Diet Tea by default).
This ad is using vague, flashy claims – glittering generalities – to make you feel as though their product will
help you loose weight.
Glittering Generalities:
Glittering generalities was one of the seven main propaganda techniques identified by the Institute for
Propaganda Analysis in 1938. It also occurs very often in politics and political propaganda. Glittering
generalities are words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects, but are linked to
highly valued concepts. When these words are used, they demand approval without thinking, simply
because such an important concept is involved. For example, when a person is asked to do
something in "defense of democracy" they are more likely to agree. The concept of democracy has a
positive connotation to them because it is linked to a concept that they value. Words often used as
glittering generalities are honor, glory, love of country, and especially in the United States, freedom.
When coming across with glittering generalities, we should especially consider the merits of the idea
itself when separated from specific words.
NAME CALLING
Name Calling
This is a negative, often derogatory type of propaganda technique. Examples of propaganda employing name
calling are most common in political campaigns and reality shows. Name calling, as the term suggests, involves
calling one's opponent or rival with derogatory and negatively embarrassing names. Campaigns against an idea,
such as non-vegetarianism, often use this technique of name calling when they term chicken and livestock
rearing farms as "cruel", "inhuman", "monstrous", etc. Some social cause campaigns, like a campaign against
domestic violence or child abuse, may use the terms "monster" and "beast" to drive in the negative connotations
of the culprits and abusers.
Name Calling:
Name calling occurs often in politics and wartime scenarios, but very seldom in advertising. It is
another of the seven main techniques designated by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. It is the
use of derogatory language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy.
The propaganda attempts to arouse prejudice among the public by labeling the target something that
the public dislikes. Often, name calling is employed using sarcasm and ridicule, and shows up often
in political cartoons or writings. When examining name calling propaganda, we should attempt to
separate our feelings about the name and our feelings about the actual idea or proposal.
Name-calling is a form of ad hominem attack that draws a vague equivalence between a concept and a person,
group or idea. By linking the person or idea being attacked to a negative symbol, the propagandist hopes that
the audience will reject the person or the idea on the basis of the symbol, instead of looking at the available
evidence.
The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), one of the first organizations to systematically study propaganda
in the early 20th century, included name-calling in its list of common rhetorical techniques. "Bad names have
played a tremendously powerful role in the history of the world and in our own individual development," they
stated. "They have ruined reputations, stirred men and women to outstanding accomplishments, sent others to
prison cells, and made men mad enough to enter battle and slaughter their fellowmen. They have been and are
applied to other people, groups, gangs, tribes, colleges, political parties, neighborhoods, states, sections of the
country, nations, and races." [1]
Examples of name calling include:
commie
fascist
pig
yuppie
bum
terrorist
According to the IPA, we should ask ourselves the following questions when we spot an example of namecalling:
What does the name mean?
Does the idea in question have a legitimate connection with the real meaning of the name?
Is an idea that serves my best interests being dismissed through giving it a name I don't like?
Leaving the name out of consideration, what are the merits of the idea itself?
TESTIMONIAL
Testimonials:
Testimonials are another of the seven main forms of propaganda identified by the Institute for
Propaganda Analysis. Testimonials are quotations or endorsements, in or out of context, which
attempt to connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item. Testimonials are very
closely connected to the transfer technique, in that an attempt is made to connect an agreeable
person to another item. Testimonials are often used in advertising and political campaigns. When
coming across testimonials, the subject should consider the merits of the item or proposal
independently of the person of organization giving the testimonial.
Method
If your words might lack credibility in some way, borrow the credibility of others by getting the testimony of
trusted others.
Use celebrities and public personalities who have well established and trusted public brands. Use experts,
clerics, police, scientists and others whose title is respected, even if the people themselves are unknown.
Get them to stand up and support your case with vigor. Actors, perhaps unsurprisingly, often do this particularly
well.
Example
In my last movie, I saved my family from terrorists and I'm supporting this party because they will save you
from terrorists!
I am a doctor and I say this man would have died had he not got the right medicine in time. And I ask you,
where did that medicine come from?
Discussion
Political parties know that a celebrity testimonial is worth many votes. They also make great use of testimonials
from ordinary people to show that people like your and me. Advertisers, too, make great use of celebrities and
credibly ordinary folks.
Celebrity testimonial works when people associate with the celebrity, connecting identities together.
With 'experts', listeners often do not know of their real credentials, yet still accept the expert's authority. They
will seldom question this matter, particularly when the content distracts them from this questioning. Claims of
expertise are thus often used to boost credibility of statements.