skippy the bush kangaroo

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

advertising doesn't cure real life problems

it doesn't make the photos and videos from abu gharaib go away. it doesn't bring back those innocent lives lost in a recreational war.

"branding" is not a substitute for reality based foreign policy.
secretary of state condoleezza rice, u.s. public diplomacy chief karen hughes and the public relations coalition held a "private sector summit on public diplomacy" on january 9 and 10. pr executive richard edelman suggested de-politicizing the u.s. image. "take it away from the part of the media that covers politics," he counseled. "kick it off the front page and move it to the business page or other parts of the newspaper." as an example, edelman pointed to israel's focus on its technological advances. he also suggested engaging foreign bloggers. marketing executive mary lou quinlan said, "it's time to get back to the basic values that made our brand great, things like respect for freedom and individual rights. ... the next president needs to be a better listener." - spin of the day.
posted by Cookie Jill at 8:28 PM |

3 Comments:

I'd submit that 'branding' is not a subtsitute for real life tout court. But yes, these attempts at diplomacy would be laughable if there weren't human lives at stake. Apparently the State Dept even employed a guy whose previous job had been to try and big up American multinationals in the face of rampant Ameriphobia, worsened of course by the incompentence of the present admin's foreign policy.
commented by Anonymous TheaLogie, 8:06 AM PST  
EXACTLY!

thealogie, love that "tout court," and also "Exactly!"

I actually heard Karen Hughes in a BBC interview discuss her surprise, when visting on the West Bank, to discover that it hadn't been sufficient that the Bush administration had announced a "roadmap" that essentially embraced the notion of a Palestinian state, the first American administration to do so, to win the trust of ordinary Palestinians; surprise, surprise, they had expected some actual action on the part of Bush et al, and hadn't realized that Bush et Hughes were waiting for te Palestinians to change...into exactly what Hughes was not able to delineate.

The BBC interviewer could barely respond; you could hear his bafflement.
commented by Blogger Leah A, 8:59 AM PST  
Quick question. Anyone ever hear on talk radio how many "detainees" died in Abu Ghraib of "abuse"

(Or to use real words and not Unspeak.)

How many people were tortured to death in Abu Ghraib?

Answer?

28

5 confirmed by the Army's own Slesinger report and 23 were still under investigation as of Sept 2004.

So Torture. Not only something to avoid talking about, but to ignore what really happened to the people (photos of underwear on the head is so much more fun)

-Spocko
commented by Blogger spocko, 10:01 AM PST  

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