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Anti-War Advertising: How To “Unsell The War”
San Francisco (LNS) — Henry Fonda appears on the TV screen:
“When I was a kid, I used to be really proud of this country. I thought that this was a country that cared about people no matter who they were or where they came from. But now, when I see my country engaged in an endless war, a push-button war in which American pilots and electronic technicians are killing thousands of Asians without even seeing who they kill.
“When I see us each week stepping up the tonnage of bombs dropped on Indochina…then I don’t feel so proud any more. Because I thought that was what bad countries did…not my country.”
The Fonda testimonial is one of ten new anti-war television spots in the Help Unsell the War campaign, a project sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned, an ecumenical peace group. Unsell is trying, with some success, to use the advertising industry to help make people more aware of the war. In addition to the TV spots, radio commercials and ads in newspapers and magazines have been produced for the campaign.
The spark for Unsell was struck when a Yale University student named Ira Nerkin saw the CBS television documentary, “The Selling of the Pentagon.” The program showed how the Pentagon spends millions of tax dollars on pro-military propaganda in the mass media. Nerkin felt that the anti-war movement might also be able to use the same media.
He had friends in the advertising industry who put him in touch with people interested in helping out. The ads were ready by the summer of 1971 and Clergy and Laymen Concerned was approached and agreed to sponsor the project.
Clergy and Laymen set up a network of committees around the country which — making use of its status as a church group — approached local stations and papers requesting that the spots be run free of charge as public service advertising. About 25% of those contacted agreed; in some cases where media outlets refused, funds were raised and the ads placed as paid commercials. — Bill Gerson
(via babylonfalling)
I know some people like to rag on Emilia Clarke, but really, she absolutely nails Daenerys’s scenes of theatrical bravado.
(via wrathofsan)
"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."
(via kateoplis)
"The use of torture, the report concludes, has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive.” The task force found “no firm or persuasive evidence” that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. While “a person subjected to torture might well divulge useful information,” much of the information obtained by force was not reliable, the report says."
US Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes
Finally! Guys, for months I was all like “In the future, when I’m electronically conversing with younger generations through my cyber-robo-body, how will I explain to them what happened to that thing called America?”
But now I can just point to this nonpartisan report that came out last week when no one was paying attention, along with CISPA, and the little cyber-babies of the year 2243 will say “Oh, so in America’s post-9/11 jingoistic fervor, they determined that torture, assassination, and an ever-increasingly corporate-sponsored police state were more beneficial in forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, etc etc etc. than the actual Bill of Rights.”
And I will nod my head and cry my robot tears because &@#$(@#&)^#$——-
——[logic error]
(via monsterbeard)(via monsterbeard)
"More girls have been killed in the last FIFTY years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in ALL the battles of the 20th century.
More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any ONE decade, than people were slaughtered in ALL the genocides of the 20th century."
(via kateoplis)
Members of the Tylenol groups reported feeling less upset following conversations about death and other existential topics.
“Nobody has shown this before, and we are surprised that the effect emerged so robustly,” said lead researcher Daniel Randles, “that a drug meant primarily to alleviate headaches also prevents people from being bothered all that much by thinking about death. It was certainly surprising.”
One of the study groups was tasked with watching a “surreal [and] confusing” short film by David Lynch and discussing it afterwards.
The researchers found that those who had taken the Tylenol did not experience feelings of existential dread and “looked just like the control group that hadn’t talked about their death or watched the unpleasant [film] clip.”
Best experiment ever?
Experiment-david lynch-angst-tylenol!
(via ecantwell)
This is unacceptable.
This country is a joke. A bad one that makes you feel sad.
(via dinosaurparty)
“When on the island I sometimes imagined an inverse world, in which concert halls would be turned over to the sounds of rain and the rustling of winds while in the treetops and on the weirs and behind the walls of factories, sonatas and symphonies would ring out; in a world such as this the damp on the plastering of walls would probably form coherent text while the pages of books would be covered with indistinct marks.”
-Michal Ajvaz, The Golden Age
Image: Hayashi Takahiko, 林孝彦 +
(via mythologyofblue)
