Concluding Thoughts

Throughout the course of this blog, I've investigated the relationship of truth, lies, art and politics. I've looked at topics as diverse as propaganda, graffiti, advertising, specific artists and films. There has been a lot of different content throughout the course of my posts, but there has been a common theme as well: there is no clear distinction between truth and lies, between art and propagana. The only real difference is intent; is a piece meant to expose the truth, or to convince and cover-up information?

Havel said it best when he stated

"If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed."

Milos Forman

Milos Forman behind the camera.

"Who doesn't have sympathy for the underdog? Of course I do. We create institutions, governments and schools to help us live, but every institution has a tendency, after a while, to behave not as if they should be serving you, but that you should be serving them... Instead of underdogs, let's talk about dogs. If you corner a dog, he's ready to bite you. That's the reality. Otherwise he's a loveable, wonderful creature. If you corner him, he can behave abominably. And so does a human being. When an individual is cornered by society or an institution, well, he can behave abominably and I can't really hide it or glorify it. Neither. It's just a fact of life." - Milos Forman

I've wanted to devote a post to Milos Forman for quite a while. A filmmaker and director from Czechoslovakia, Milos' works explore themes of freedom, suppression, self-exploration, and conformity. His films are the expression of an individual whose early life was spent living in totalitarian societies.

Originally named Jan Tomáš Forman, Milos (pronounced mee-losh) was born on February 18th 1932 in Aslav, Czechoslovakia. Milos' parents introduced him to western films from a young age; his favorites were John Ford westerns and the Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Rudolf, his father who was Jewish professor of education, and Ann Svabova, his Protestant mother, both died in concentration camps during WWII when Milos was nine years old. He was raised by relatives during the rest of his childhood and adolescence.

In his early teens, Milos insulted the son of a prominent Communist party member. The incident was put on his record, and resulted in affecting his entire life. Because of his marred record, Milos was only accepted to one university: the Prague Film Academy.

During his time at school, Milos studied film direction and revived his love of movies. In the early 60s, after a long apprenticeship, Milos was finally selected to direct several films. These included several internationally acclaimed films in which he developed his own unique sense of comedy. These include Audition and Loves of a Blonde. In 1968, after the release of the film The Fireman's Ball, Milos was accused by the Communist party of mocking "the common man," and fled the country in order to seek safety in the United States.

During the last several decades, Milos Forman has continued his film career in the United States, where he has created some of his best work. His 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey's book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won five Oscars. Other subsequent films that have received high praise from film critics include Hair, Amadeus, The People vs. Larry Flint, Man on the Moon, and Goya's Ghost.

The rock opera Hair was directed by Milos after he had firmly established
himself in Hollywood with his adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

All of Milos Forman's films are unique, but they have common themes. Many follow characters who are at odds with society. His stories about these characters eventually reveal a truth of humanity by contrasting them against those who have given in to societal principles. Eventually, these characters become an inspiration to those who have been worn down by the institutional pressures around them, and their societies come into question. Many of Milos' movies are likely to have been directly influenced by his time living under totalitarian regimes:

"It's funny to realize, but in my relatively short life I have lived through six or seven different social and cultural systems. First the Democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia, then the limited democracy before World War II, then the Nazi regime. After the Nazi regime there was a kind of democracy again for three years, then came the Stalinist regime, then the reformed Communist regime, and now I am living in a free country."

Through his art, Milos explores the feelings and psychological effects that living in totalitarian societies. Though he eventually had to leave his home because of his work, he continued to explore the emotional and sociological consequences of repressing individual freedom. Here's a quick synopsis of one of Milos Forman's films that I've seen which are critical of conformist, controlling societies (there are spoilers):

 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975): 

"You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it."
- R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

This film follows R.P. McMurphy, a man who was jailed for having sex with a girl who was "fifteen years old, going on thirty five... and she told [him] she was eighteen." Once in jail, he agreed to be transferred for his remaining sentence because he thought it would be easier completed in a psychiatric facility than in prison. When he gets there and is asked what he perceives his problem to be, McMurphy answers, "Well, as near as I can figure out, it's 'cause I fight and fuck too much."


Once in the facility, R.P. McMurphy's coarse and outspoken personality shocks the staff and the patients. He soon makes an enemy of the head nurse, Ms. Ratchet, who is highly adept at manipulating those around her to maintain order in the facility. While she tries to keep control, R.P. McMurphy is constantly undermining her efforts: disregarding the schedule, refusing to take his pills, questioning that he or many of the other patients are crazy, denying that rules the nurses insist the patients adhere to, and planning an escape to Canada. In one scene, he tries to lift up a water fountain to throw through a window, but it's too heavy.


With McMurphy refusing to alter himself to fit the expectations of the facility, the other patients begin to wake up and question their surroundings as well. Chief Bromden, a Native American patient who has been pretending to be deaf and dumb during his time at the facility, becomes particularly close to McMurphy when he confides in him his ability to hear and speak, and tells him about his drunk father. McMurphy suggests to the gigantic man that they should break out:

McMurphy: I can't take it no more. I gotta get outta here.
Chief Bromden: I can't. I just can't.
McMurphy: It's easier than you think, Chief.
Chief Bromden: For you, maybe. You're a lot bigger than me.

Eventually almost all of the other men come to look up to McMurphy, and the group causes widespread disruption in Nurse Ratchet's schedule and rules. When she pushes back, causing one young inmate to commit suicide, McMurphy loses his cool and instead of escaping through an open window like he originally planned, he attempts to strangle her. He is taken away by the psychiatrists.


In the next scene, McMurphy is returned to his bed by the nurses while the other patients are sleeping. Chief Bromden quietly goes to his side, and tells him he is finally ready to attempt an escape.

Chief Bromden: Mac... they said you escaped. I knew you wouldn't leave without me. I was waiting for you. Now we can make it, Mac; I feel big as a damn mountain.
[he suddenly sees the lobotomy scars]
Chief Bromden: Oh, no...
Chief Bromden: [embracing McMurphy] I'm not goin' without you, Mac. I wouldn't leave you this way... You're coming with me.
Chief Bromden: [laying him down] Let's go.

Chief Bromden then places a pillow over McMurphys face and waits until he's still. In an act of sheer strength he picks up the same water fountain from the earlier scene and throws it at the window. He escapes through the broken glass. The last scene shows him running across a field as dawn breaks.

This film explores themes of how "outsiders" in our society are treated. Those who act strangely or see the world differently can be declared mentally unsound, and can be forced to enter psychiatric facilities against their will. The arbitrary classification of these individuals is a metaphor for how many outsiders are grouped together and controlled "for the good of society." Milos Forman's film shows the inhumanity of treating these people as threats by showing them as they are: fellow human beings, free of some of the influences society insists we are subjected to.

"If you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist
totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose." - Milos Forman

Advertising

"Advertising is the 'wonder' in Wonder Bread."

-Jef I. Richards

Andy Warhol: art, advertisement, and propaganda.

 Advertising is a field dedicated to finding the most effective approach in convincing a "target group" to buy certain products, support certain individuals or ideas, or become involved in certain actions. Harry Holligworth, one of the most influential psychologists involved with advertising in the 20th century, believed that for an ad to be effective it must do four things: attract the attention of the target group, focus their attention onto the message, make sure they remember the message, and cause them to take the desired action. There are different names for fields that do this, including advertising, marketing, and public relations. However, all of these fields are wish to convince the public, and achieves this by using essentially the same tactics.

In modern-day USA, we drown in advertisements on a daily basis. Cities sport banners, billboards, and posters along every street. Radio stations and TVs channel have scheduled interruptions for ads. Even when commercials aren't playing, many shows and movies engage in "product placement," where companies promote their goods by exposing them to the show's audience. Actors and actresses promote stylists and clothes designers on the red carpet, and sports players wear logos of companies on their jerseys. Even relatively anonymous individuals, like us, are often engaging in advertising without meaning to. We do so when we wear clothes with a company name on them, have bumper stickers on our cars, or put up posters of our preferred political candidate in our front yards. In fact, we often enjoy some forms of advertising. We all know at least one person who doesn't watch the Super Bowl for the football; they watch it for the half-time commercials.

Every step you take in these shoes is an advertisement for Toms. Some people want to be associated with the ideals this company has promoted for itself.

This person likes the Super Bowl half-time commercials because advertising appeals to its audience's deepest emotions and perspectives. Though there is a rich history of the union between psychology and advertising (starting in the early 20th century with Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays), I won't go into the details here. But it was this combination made advertising what it is today: a powerful ploy to invoke certain deep emotions or perceptions and associate them with a certain object, person or idea. Put more simply, advertising is an artfully-put opinion; a story; it's the art of persuasion. But does this mean that advertising is more similar to art, or to another form of persuasion I have discussed in this blog: propaganda?

Advertising is visual in most cases, and therefore the industry attracts visual artists to collaborate with advertising specialists. We can instantly see the difference between a well-designed ad campaign and an ad that  was made by an amateur. But, like all things related to art, psychology, and politics, advertising is rarely clearly separate from art. Take Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell soup cans. This is an example of advertising turned to art, but was he just promoting the advertising with his work? In other words, was Andy Warhol advertising Campbell Soup, was he advertising Campbell Soup's advertising of its soup, or was  his work not advertising at all?

Perhaps the clearest distinction between advertising and art would be the intent with which each is made. Advertising is made and tailored for a specific audience to mold their feelings and perspectives in a premeditated way. Art is not meant so much to persuade as it is to reveal; art in its purest form is a representation for a truth. This message, believed in by the artist, is conveyed to the audience to analyze and do with it what they will.

DKNY's "guerilla advertising" installed around NYC. Can this be considered art, or is advertising inherently not art

 It's undeniable that advertising still overlaps with art, but it may have even more similarities with another category: propaganda. Advertising is meant to persuade or trick people into thinking or acting in certain ways, after all. H.G. Wells said that "Advertising is legalized lying," and he's not alone in his perspective. Scholarly papers have been written on the subject, psychologists have compared the two, and modern-day activists have rebelled against having advertising in public spaces.

Additionally, advertising shares almost every technique used in propaganda: bandwagon, card-stacking, glittering generalities, name-calling, plain folks, testimonials, transfer, inducing fear, and asserting opinion as truth. Though ads today cannot legally present factually incorrect statements, they may make value judgements and give opinions or perspectives. Advertisements for a certain brand of automobile can't tell you it gets 100 mpg when it gets 15 mpg, so professionals use a different tactic than lying. They try to convince you that you want this car, that you need this car. Their ads may use attractive and fun-loving people in its visuals to imply that if you buy this car, you are attractive and fun-loving too. They will try to convince you that frugality, a value you may have held beforehand, is unnecessary and foolish when it comes to spending thousands of dollars on this product.

One of the most successful advertisement campaigns of all time, created in the 1950s.
"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
-Mark Twain

 I could not find a single satisfactory distinction between propaganda and advertising on the web. Some said advertising is trying to sell a product, while propaganda is an attempt to alter an individual's ideals. However, this definition doesn't hold up. Political advertising campaigns, after all, are attempts to change individual's perspectives on certain matters or candidates. Others have suggested that the difference between the two is that viewers know that they're intentionally being manipulated when they engage with advertising, whereas with propaganda you don't know what the angle is. This isn't strictly true either, though. Citizens living in Czechoslovakia during the totalitarian regime often knew that the propaganda the government was spouting was false and had ulterior motives. Conversely, children in today's society don't understand that advertising is targeting them for a specific purpose.

Others assert that propaganda is a tool of the government, whereas advertising is used by companies. If we look again to political campaigns, or to the motivational posters seen in corporate settings, we can still see that this isn't a true distinction. In the end, we may have to accept that these two concepts are synonyms with differing connotations: things labeled as propaganda are seen as evil, things labeled as advertisements are seen as harmless background noise to our daily lives. Maybe this distinction is itself the product of advertising (or propaganda).

Advertisement or propaganda? M&Ms doesn't help clarify the distinction.

What does it mean that advertising is practically inseparable from propaganda? What are the implications on those of us who spend our lives literally clothed in advertisements and brand names? Most of the public doesn't consider advertising to be wrong or an infringement on their lives. They see advertising as a necessary tool in a capitalist society, they believe they can ignore the jingles and posters, and they generally don't compare it to propaganda. These perceptions aren't accurate. Psychologists have shown that people are easily manipulated by advertising and branding. We even base our preferences on unconscious trivial matters, such as the color of a product or the height of a politician. When advertising appeals to our unconscious desires, we often have no line of defense since we rarely know what these desires even are. The only comfort is that there are multiple groups fighting against each other for our attention: Democrats and Republicans both have tactics to gain our support, brands of toothpaste try to out-whiten each other in their ads, and service companies try to show that their company does the best job for the lowest price. However, the scale is not always balanced. For example, fast food and candy companies have far more revenue to spend on their advertisements than do health-food advocates.

Yesterday's blatant propaganda has evolved into something that might be even more sinister: propaganda that people don't see as propaganda, propaganda that attacks the subconscious, and propaganda that the public willingly engages in. It's possible to fight against some of this capitalist ideology. Google and facebook use cookies to cater advertisements to web surfers' personal tastes; turning off the cookies on your browser stops these sites from reading your history. Choosing not to wear clothes that are branded whenever possible is another action the public can take. Additionally, knock-off brands often sell items that are identical to the branded items, and are much cheaper. I buy these whenever I have the choice. 

However, the most effective tactic may be the simplest one: be aware of the tools advertisers use to persuade you, and analyze why you are making your decisions. Live in the truth, not in advertiser's wallets.

"In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope."

-Peter Nivio Zarlenga

Graffiti Continued...

“I don’t know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public. They forget that invisibility is a superpower."

-Banksy

 Graffiti has been found in archeological sites thousands of years old. Slurs against rivals were carved into stone buildings, lovers wrote their promises on tree trunks, and caves were painted with flower pigment. Today, most of us associate graffiti with anonymous images or text put in highly visible urban areas. Because graffiti is most often put on property not owned by the graffiti artist, many people consider it an illegal act of vandalism. Others argue that it is a pure expression of cultural, political, or self expression. I tend to agree more with the artistic definition (though this doesn't mean I'm giving anyone a free pass to spray-paint my things.)

A graffiti artist at work.

Because of its anonymous and, often, illegal nature, graffiti is a perfect medium to express discontent with the legal and political system of the society, though it is used for many purposes. Gangs are notorious for using spray paint and stylized writing to mark territory boundaries, and other people use codes to signal to others in their group. Many of us have written on bathroom stalls (called latrinalia). Some use it to respond to advertising and propaganda, and others just want to sign their name, or their girlfriend's, where the world can see it. Some artists want to make the world look a little better. 

Generally, people use graffiti for its many benefits: anonymity, relatively cheap materials, a great deal of exposure, and no need for permission. As I mentioned in my previous post, the art world is surprisingly selective and competitive. As one particularly famous street artist named Banksy puts it, "The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires." Graffiti, unlike "conventional" art, is uncensored and open to anyone who can afford a paint can and has the guts to put their thoughts out (literally) on the street.


Banksy, the artist quoted in the above paragraph and at the beginning of this post, is a rare breed of graffiti artist. He has reached a level of notoriety unheard of for graffiti artists in the past, and is most well-known for his ironic political commentary expressed through the use of stenciled art and select text. He has held art shows, traveled to countries across the globe, stolen museum paintings, and created a movie for the Sundance Film Festival, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (there is debate as to whether this movie is a documentary parody, also known as a mockumentary, or a genuine documentary.) Though he has accomplished all of this, his identity remains anonymous.

Banksy's ironic commentary on privatization, property rights and government policies.

The London artist Banksy is the modern poster boy for a growing movement of street artists across the globe, including Invader, Shepard Fairy, and Pavel 183. It was the artists Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy, however, who helped graffiti enter into the mainstream art culture during the 1980s when they had a gallery opening in Rome. Soon street art, particularly stencil graffiti, had entered into pop culture and advertising and spread to countries outside of Europe and the United States. Today, street art has been adapted to include pieces that use mediums besides paint and marker, including chalk, snow, Legos, lamp-posts, yarn, or almost anything.

Brazil is now internationally recognized for its street art.

Modern street art spread to Czechoslovakia as well. John Lennon had been a pacifist role model for subversive citizens during the Totalitarian era in the country. In 1980, when Lennon was killed, a monument was set up to honor him by a group of anonymous youth. Though listening or playing western music meant risking jail, the wall grew in fame. A growing number of people wrote graffiti epitaphs and anti-Communist sentiments. Though the secret police white-washed over the writing many times, they couldn't keep the wall clean even after installing  security cameras. As protests against the state become increasingly public, marches and demonstrations were sparked and, eventually, the wall became a centerpiece for the anti-state group during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

The Lennon Wall in Prague

Graffiti was around before 1980 in Czechoslovakia as well, and will continue. It is, after all, one of the oldest forms of art and communication.

The black and white drawings on the right is a Prague poster depicting the Red Army as liberators in 1945 and oppressors in 1968. The colored drawing on the left is an adaptation of the original poster by street artist Shepard Fairy.

“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.” - Banksy

A Response to Cultures of Resistance

Last Thursday, my class watched a documentary directed by Iara Lee at the Beloit International Film Festival (BIFF) called Cultures of Resistance. The film interviewed a variety people in several locations across the globe, their one common factor being their active resistance to an aspect of society. Some resisted through violence, such as in the Congo, while some through peaceful activism, like the Burmese monks. A majority of those interviewed in the film, however, express their discontentment with their cultures through art.

In Brazil, musicians turn machine guns into guitars and play for the kids in the slums. Lebanese refugees use photography, film-making and music tell their stories. And in Iran, the story that intrigued me most, street artists use graffiti as a weapon against suppression.

The duo in the film call themselves Tehran Ratz. Because of the uncontrollable nature of their art (graffiti is outlawed in Iran), and the highly political messages they create in their pieces, the pair's work is trying to be stifled by the Ahmadinejad Regime. Despite the illegality of their actions, they continue their actions in hopes of portraying a different view of Iran citizens to other countries, and to relay messages regarding politics to their fellow Iranians.

Here is a clip from Cultures of Resistance in which the Tehran Ratz talk about their work and their country:

Graffiti artists create some of the truest expressions of self expression and political statements since, unlike most artists, their aim is usually not to be shown in galleries or museums. Instead, their main intent is simply to get a statement out. Because these artists don't have to worry about getting their name into highly selective circles in the art world (which is extremely, extremely difficult to do, even for the most talented artists), they are free to convey whatever message they wish without worrying about their reputation or financial repercussions. In my next post, I will continue my discussion on graffiti and it's highly political nature. I also hope to touch upon legal graffiti and rarities in the field, such as the extremely famous and successful street artist Banksy.

Soviet Posters

"We'll Execute the Plan of Great Works"

  Soviet states during the Communist Era promoted their cause through the careful collaboration  between artists and party members. The artwork was meant to create a strong reaction in all the citizens of these countries, combining mental triggers with emotional reactions. This meant using propaganda tricks, like those discussed in my last post.

The poster above employs the propaganda techniques of bandwagon, by showing a large group in the poster seemingly in support of the ideas depicted (the many raised hands); and glittering generalities, by using the words 'great works.'

"Every Day Life is Getting Better"

 This poster employs the techniques of plain folks and asserting an opinion as an overarching truth.

"We'll Raise a Generation Selflessly Loyal to Communism"

 This piece uses bandwagon by its inclusion of the word 'we,' and also employs plain folks.

"For the Motherland, for Stalin, for World Peace, for Communism"

 This poster uses glittering generalities is employed, with the references to the 'Motherland' and 'World Peace;' and transfer, by using the reputation of Stalin.

Art in Propaganda?

The seventeenth century marked an important shift in history. Settlers from England had reached Plymouth Rock, and were beginning to colonize what would one day become the superpower of a global economy. The East India Trading Company had just put footholds in distant lands, and access to foreign cultures and goods was increasing dramatically. Protestantism was growing rapidly in European countries and spreading across borders. The increasing numbers of this branch of Christianity, combined with the heightened contact with the rest of the world, pushed the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Catholic Church to combine and form a specialty school in 1622. The "College of the Propaganda" was formed to train missionaries to spread Catholic doctrine and increase attendance to the the church. This is where the term "propaganda" was officially coined.

The College of the Propaganda most likely believed they had righteous intentions, but in today's society the term propaganda has negative connotations. This word usually brings to mind images of brain-washing, deceit, and suppression. More relevantly to this blog, propaganda often brings to mind "poster art" like Rosie the Riveter:

Artist J. Howard Miller was commissioned to create this poster in 1942
by the Westinghouse Company's War Production Coordinating Committee.

What is the relationship between artists and politics in relation to propaganda? Is there an inherent difference between an artist who creates landscape paintings and one that creates posters like Rosie the Riveter?

The definition of propaganda varies from one source to the next, but most agree that it is "... a form of communication that attempts to influence the behavior of people by affecting their perceptions, attitudes and opinions" (http://www.answers.com/topic/propaganda-uses-and-psychology). One could argue that both paintings and propaganda posters attempt to convey a message to a perceived audience by "affecting their perceptions, attitudes and opinions." The artist who creates a still-life painting employs the same elements of art that a 1950s Soviet poster artist does: line, color, texture, form, space, value, and shape. So, where do we draw the line between art used as "brainwashing" and a "pure expression" of art?

It seems the main difference comes in the "attempts to influence the behavior of people," or the use of power and control, that propaganda pieces employ. A propaganda poster is trying to incite a particular action or belief in all members of the public, while art is an attempt on the part of the artist to convey their own beliefs or views. In simple black-and-white terms, propaganda's aim is control and suppression while art's aim is enlightenment and self-expression.

The line separating the two is more easily recognized when a piece is commissioned by a second party. Artists who are hired by another individual or company are being used as tools to promote a certain image for the second party. However, even this isn't a perfect definition. Consider commissioned portraits; could these be considered propaganda? Though the artist will want to portray the individual they are painting in a flattering light in order to receive payment, the artist will try to do this while keeping the features of the subject as realistic as possible. Is this more truth or more lie?

The example of the portrait artist falls in a grey area. However, there are clearer examples of propaganda, and they are often linked to political agendas.

Soviet propaganda poster by unknown artist.
Translation: "The People and Army are One!"

Political parties have used art as a tool for propaganda for centuries. This was a particularly effective tool where country's population was illiterate or only semi-literate. The power of pictures was recognized and taken advantage of, particularly during wartime, to increase patriotism and compliance to the state. Images, however, are rarely the only device used by visual propaganda. Poster art generally uses a combination of key trigger words, images, and associations to create the most effective campaign. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), established in 1936, sites seven standard propaganda techniques:

• Bandwagon: pretty self-explanatory; this technique promotes the importance or veracity of a concept by making the audience believe the majority is acting or thinking in a certain way.
• Card-stacking: the selective omission of certain information.
• Glittering Generalities: the use of vague concepts that are generally seen as "good" and applying them to them to the cause at hand; examples include "democracy," "patriotism," "brotherhood," and "freedom."
• Name-calling: essentially the opposite of glittering generalities, this technique overrides a person's rational thought by employing negative emotional trigger words, such as "terrorist."
• Plain Folks: the attempt to make an individual or group seem like one of the majority, or as promoting the needs of a certain group.
• Testimonial: citing the support of a well-known and respected individual.
• Transfer: taking the the reputation of one concept, group, or person and applying it to another. William Jennings Bryan did this in 1896 when he compared Jesus to labor unions: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"

Other techniques that have been suggested as propaganda techniques over the years also include: inducing fear, asserting an opinion as truth, presenting the desired action as the lesser of two evils, pinpointing one specific person or group as "the enemy," and oversimplifying a situation (often through the use of stereotypes.) Many of these techniques employ the written word, but others can be applied through the use of images and symbols alone or in conjunction with words. Consider a poster created to promote Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign:

A poster from Obama's 2008 election campaign
employs the use of glittering generalities

The stylized picture shows Obama gazing above the viewer and uses the three colors of the American flag: red, white, and blue. This would likely cause the viewer to associate this image with patriotism and foresight: good qualities in a leader. This, combined with the single word "hope" at the bottom of the poster, causes the audience to associate Obama with loyalty to America, planning, and a better future, even though poster reveals nothing about the man's actual policies or personality.

What is interesting about the Obama poster shown above is that it was not originally commissioned by a second party. The artist, Frank Sheppard Fairy, created the image of his own volition, and was only later endorsed by the official Obama presidential campaign.

While there is a difference between art and propaganda, the examples of the portrait artist and of the  poster above shows that it's important to remember that visual propaganda employ artists. The distinction between an artist's work that is meant to make people think and an artist's work that is meant to make people think in a certain way is often not black-and-white. Truth is subjective, and artists can be swayed by opposing opinions.