Advertising and politics

Sales ads for products originate from ad campaigns developed by ad firms. We are fully immersed in the culture of advertising all our lives, and even more so today with online activity and the popularity of hand-held devices.

Within the art of advertising lies the insidious practice of disinformation and hyperbole. There’s just no getting away from it. Now along comes disinformation/misdirection campaigns like those being discovered (Cambridge Analytica) concerning the 2016 election and so many are appalled and surprised? In reality these tactics are a perfect fit for the very jaded and disingenuous nature of politics!

We Americans have been saturated in such sales tactics for so long now we have become numb and compliant to it. Applying these well-developed tactics to politics was just a matter of time. It will always be the electorate’s personal responsibility to be adequately informed so we are properly prepared to see through all this. It’s as if people don’t want to do their homework, but still want to believe they aced their test!

Is it any wonder we have become reduced to proud delusion, ignorance and tribalism? This is on us, not Putin!

Chris Bowers

Liberty Lake