PROPAGANDA OR THE FREUD FAMILY RAKING

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH - N°12
Paloma's travel diary

Dear Readers,  

My travels this month have taken me to Amsterdam, Cannes, Paris, Brussels, and Rome. While times are still troubled - it is after all the year of the 1001 elections - the dream of protectionism is coming true. Mark Rutte, from the Netherlands, the EU’s second-longest serving prime minister, is moving to NATO, leaving his seat at European Councils to the Dutch standard-bearers of the new wave of Respectable Far Right and, at home, more money for defence. Jupiter Macron calls for elections with a whiff of Stockholm syndrome while losing the magical touch at international level... and the outcome tastes as bitter as the grapes Nero ate while Rome was burning. The Vatican attends the G7 meeting in Italy, perhaps a logical substitute for snubbed Russia, invited by an all-powerful Meloni displaying her best Éowyn behaviour. And bless the Lord, values trumped propaganda when the UK finally got a little bit of hope after the last decade’s blood, sweat and tears. 

So looking at all of this, what is the role of this month’s subject, propaganda versus values? As you know, the EU has a Vice President that oversees the European way of life – under his remit you will find health, migration or digital to competitiveness which means (I guess) that, for us Europeans, values drive money.... so, is it still possible to fight against propaganda? 

The film that inspired us this time is the series MAD MEN* 

My conclusion  
Propaganda always backed-up our establishment, but the new world order is fuelled by propaganda boosted and distributed by social media incumbents. To stand up against this, we must bring values back to the core of our discussions. We need to understand both why people vote and how people vote, including how social media distortion works.  
We are of course conscious of propaganda. But guess what - propaganda as a business model was founded by the nephew of *the* big player with our minds, Sigmund Freud. 

“If you don’t like what is being said, then change the conversation.” - Don Draper 

What if we start with some basics on propaganda... 

The concept of modern propaganda was significantly influenced and made popular by Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud’s. Bernays, often called the "father of public relations," used his uncle's theories on the unconscious to shape public opinion and behaviour. 

His seminal work, Propaganda (1928), outlined the techniques and strategies for influencing public opinion, arguing that propaganda was an essential tool for democracy, as it allowed leaders to influence and guide the populace. Digging into the theory of Uncle Sigmund, Bernays' ideas had a profound and lasting impact on fields such as advertising, politics, and public relations, cementing his legacy as a pioneer in the strategic use of media to influence public perception. 
"Advertising is based on one thing: happiness." -Don Draper 

You will find some basic information on propaganda regulation and business at the end of this bulletin. Yet more importantly, almost a hundred years on, Bernays teachings still help us understand marketing of anything including politics, as exemplified by three events this month: 

Using the French latest to go into Propaganda...  

Macron had the country holding their breath for a month. Perhaps we should thank him for handling propaganda well, because the two political extremes manipulated the discussion on social media with the help of He Who Shall Not Be Named.  

The voters’ dilemma is captured by a cartoon in the unmatchable Canard enchaîné, with an entrepreneur saying "I must choose between those who want me to pay my workers more and those who want to expel them."  
So, values prevailed… and now the king is naked, while France is exposed to financial intervention by the EU and a vanishing influence on the world scene. 

But life continued, and at the Cannes Lions awards ceremony I got the full-blast experience of the current Propaganda Kings granting themselves awards for brilliant advertising campaigns in which the whole digital experience is now about emotion, connection: You and your screen... you do not even have to pay for dinner, they like you, they love you! 

"People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone." — Don Draper 

What’s up in Brussels 

Macron pulled the rug from under French diplomacy, Talleyrand’s power machine, and the Poles, Greeks went ahead without consulting on the top jobs: Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola kept theirs, while Antonio Costa got anointed as the President of the European Council. 
Transparency was never top of the post-mongering agenda, but the power of propaganda convinced us all that, in these times, we needed a pair of safe hands...   

The most hilarious feature of the “reliability” campaign were the Xs on Orbán playing supremo, meeting the likes of Putin and Xi while the cool countries refused to send to meetings of the Hungarian rotating presidency anyone more senior than Ministry interns. 

"You are the product. You’re feeling something. That’s what sells." — Don Draper 

And finally, in Italy  

I witnessed a critical media propaganda moment: iconic Meloni hosting the G7 at an American dream of a Puglia coast paradise looking down on Nero/Macron and holding Biden’s hand in a Lost in translation moment, broadcast by every single media network to confirm that Meloni has indeed the heart of a Lord of the Rings character. And... she invited the leader of Catholic faith to be a party to the economic discussions. After all the Vatican does have a business model, namely, to save souls. Money, values, and propaganda.... give it to the Italians. 

... "It’s not a lie. It’s a promise." — Don Draper 

Regulatory Basics  

In Europe… We are only “protected” against propaganda by voluntary agreements, e.g., the Code of Practice on Disinformation: Launched in 2018, this voluntary agreement commits online platforms to transparency, ad placement scrutiny, and efforts to close fake accounts.  
Or the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), set up to support the creation of a network of independent fact-checkers and academic researchers. 

Global or US... The US does not even pretend to have voluntary codes of conduct, but guess what: they do have the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), that conducts regular assessments and issues reports on foreign influence and interference in U.S. elections, including the use of propaganda. 

Business Basics 

Dear readers: yes, YES, advertising and PR are PROPAGANDA  
1) The global advertising industry earned $766 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2025. 
2) The public relations industry was worth $97 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach around $129 billion by 2025.  
3) Political campaigning and consulting: political advertising in the U.S. alone reached around $8.5 billion in the 2020 Social Media Manipulation includes Fake Accounts and Bots 
State-sponsored propaganda: countries like Russia or China invest billions in State-sponsored media and influencing operations. 

In my humble opinion 

We love it, we adore it, propaganda is: “give me news that make me think it’s going to be OK.” 
Despite the inherent tension between propaganda and core values in Europe, there remains a hopeful path forward. As we embrace a new era, it is crucial to endure the challenges of transformation.  

The upcoming European Commission has the potential to uphold the principles of the "European way of life," ensuring that all significant portfolios, from competition policy to digital transformation, migration, and culture, are filtered by our democratic values. By acknowledging the presence of manipulation while remaining vigilant and informed, we can collectively progress. This awareness allows us to navigate through political agendas, staying true to who we are and what we stand for. After all, who wants to be happy ....as long as they like you on Instagram! 

*Reason for the choice of the series 
Mad Men is more than just a drama about the advertising industry; it is a nuanced exploration of how media and messaging can be used to shape perceptions and behaviour. By portraying the techniques, ethical dilemmas, and cultural impacts of advertising in the 1960s, the series offers valuable insights into the mechanics and power of propaganda. Mad Men is inspired by the book Revolutionary Road, that captures the disillusion of a whole generation of Americans after World War II and the Korean war, which disproved the belief that shopping could lead to happiness. 

Dear Readers,