michael lambe's scrapbook

Recently organisations I basically agree with have annoyed me by muddying their messages with bad propaganda. Yesterday, for example Greenpeace sent out a mail that read:

The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090 — That’s what Reuters and NewScientist wrote today about our new Energy [R]evolution plan. We can beat climate change. And with aggressive investment in renewable power generation and energy efficiency, we can create a 360 billion dollars-a-year industry…. Please watch this historic video.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? So I watched the video and basically it was a pretty seamless mash-up of John F. Kennedy and (presumably) an actor’s voice giving a speech on Greenpeace’s projected Energy Revolution. I hate that kind of thing. It’s just poor taste to put your own words into a dead man’s mouth.  It’s disrespectful and it does the message a disservice. Of late Greenpeace propaganda has been irritating at best but this is a new low in uncool. I’m not even going to link to it.

Then today (!) Avaaz sent out a mail today that read:

Right now, desperate conservatives are employing the dirtiest of tactics in the US election — distributing millions of videos, online ads and fliers deceptively linking Obama with terrorism, deliberately inciting hatred against Muslims and foreigners, and creating a sense of global fear and suspicion amongst Americans voters. We won’t remain silent in the face of these negative and misleading global messages. That’s why Avaaz members from across the world have made a positive advertisement calling for change, which we aim to have viewed by millions of Americans before they go to the polls in just one week.

And I thought, “I could go for that!” If you look at what Sarah Palin has been saying in recent weeks, it’s definitely dangerous stuff. But they were being a little disingenuous.  I watched the avaaz vid and it was a pro-Obama propaganda ad pure and simple – nothing to do with appealing for an end to incitement. Not only that but it seemed to be claiming that America was the darling of the world, a country that never put a foot wrong before the dark days of Bush: “I can remember when America was headed in the right direction…”, says an American, and then other people from all over the world chime in with praise for the Golden Age of the America they remember they used to love so much: “you stood against tyrants and inspired us to dream…” blah blah blah. Well, I’m sorry I don’t remember it that way. That aint cool propaganda. You can watch it up here if you want, but I’m not posting it here.

This next link though is very cool propaganda indeed. I’d post it on the page but the player just won’t work. Click on either link and find some very cool and funky propaganda remixed by Tano Sokolow:

When Allen Toussaint wrote Yes We Can for Lee Dorsey in 1970, both men obviously knew what was to come in 2008, and felt the need to pave the way for young Barack Obama….Yes We Can! mp3
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