Saw An Interesting Advertisement Today

[ecnarf]

So, this afternoon, after I came home from school, I was watching a little bit of the SPEED channel, the show was called "NASCAR peformance" (basically, a bunch of guys sit around and talk about cars, with the word NASCAR thrown in every few minutes for good measure). So, you can guess this show has a large audience of southern NASCAR dads.

 

Then, I saw a commercial come on, with a couple little kids asking questions, like "if nobody's home, should we go to the neighbours?" or "if we're stuck somewhere, who will come to pick us up?"

 

Then, a voice-over comes on saying, "There are a lot of good reasons to make plans for a family emergency or terrorist attack..." etc etc. Then comes the address for the dept. of homeland security, ready.gov

 

Now, that particular site has already been mocked to bits for its vague and stupid signs. But when the commercial was over, it dawned on me, could this have been part of George Bush's re-election campaign? Keep voters subtly reminded that 9/11 still happened, and that homeland security is still there, and that we need to make preparations in case a plane flies into the local landmark.

 

I'd also like to know what the dept. of homeland security is doing putting out TV advertisements telling families to make plans with their kids in case a major loss of life happens. Don't they have more important things to do (such as raising the terror alert levels?).

 

Either way, I feel really dirty after seeing that ad, having come face to face with what has to be labelled as propoganda, pure and simple.

[HoboFactory]

Never saw this ad, does sound kind of sick and wrong in away. Fueling people's fear like that. The gov't puts its citizens in danger with its actions and then tries to get people to submit to it with scare tactics.

[Biggie]

How many of you have a plan in case your house in on fire or other emergencies? Are you paralysed with fear because you've made a plan?

 

uber-wank

[HoboFactory]

Not the same thing really. With fire, it's typically preventable by the victim, just need a few precautions. Totally different from thinking there are evil people somewhere bent solely upon your murder and the murder of those who you know and love.

[Biggie]

There are people out there bent on killing Americans. It's not an Orwellian fabrication.

 

If you've been to http://www.ready.gov/index.html it's basically just telling people to have a first aid kit and have supplies set aside, yadda yadda, which are a good idea in any possible emergency. Would you prefer the government tell people that everything is hunky dory?

[HoboFactory]

Well sure there are terrorists out there, but the likelihood of actually being killed by one is extremely low, they might as well be marketing a meteorite-impact safety helmets or something. People take the threat far more seriously than they should. For example, recently, in my state at least, gun sales went up with the "threat" of terrorism. In reality what good would a gun be?? Certainly wouldn't be very useful; I'm sure plenty of people in New York had guns when the attack took place, didn't seem to have done any good, and yet people bought them like crazy?? Why?? Because they're scared and they want to protect themselves. Fire departments, and local emergency serivices already tell people have have escape plans from their houses and to keep safety/emergency kits in case of a natural disaster. So to tell people to do it in case of terrorism seems quite un-necessary as people should be doing it already; it would seem then that the only purpose to bring terrorism make people think that it's something they should genuinely be afraid of. You made the comparison to fire, well one someone sees a discarded lighter on the ground, they don't get all hysterical and think it has to do with an arson plot. In sharp contrast, right here in the town I live in, a huge panic was caused when some teenage guy found a slip of paper with Arabic text printed on it, alot of people believed they were onto something terrorist related. A nearby school was even locked down. They later determined the slip of paper was a label from a box of an Arabian tea from a local foreign foods store.

[saturnine]

if you don't have the proper precautions in place to safeguard your family, somebody might fly a plane into a building and kill you.

[Biggie]

Well sure there are terrorists out there, but the likelihood of actually being killed by one is extremely low, they might as well be marketing a meteorite-impact safety helmets or something. People take the threat far more seriously than they should. For example, recently, in my state at least, gun sales went up with the "threat" of terrorism. In reality what good would a gun be?? Certainly wouldn't be very useful; I'm sure plenty of people in New York had guns when the attack took place, didn't seem to have done any good, and yet people bought them like crazy?? Why?? Because they're scared and they want to protect themselves. Fire departments, and local emergency serivices already tell people have have escape plans from their houses and to keep safety/emergency kits in case of a natural disaster. So to tell people to do it in case of terrorism seems quite un-necessary as people should be doing it already; it would seem then that the only purpose to bring terrorism make people think that it's something they should genuinely be afraid of. You made the comparison to fire, well one someone sees a discarded lighter on the ground, they don't get all hysterical and think it has to do with an arson plot. In sharp contrast, right here in the town I live in, a huge panic was caused when some teenage guy found a slip of paper with Arabic text printed on it, alot of people believed they were onto something terrorist related. A nearby school was even locked down. They later determined the slip of paper was a label from a box of an Arabian tea from a local foreign foods store.

You kill me. So, you don't want to go after the people who want to kill Americans. And you don't want people to know what to do if their city happens to be attacked, because this would be fear mongering?

 

Christ.

 

Statistically, plane crashes are rare, so why bother telling passengers where the oxygen masks are, right? They might get afraid...

[HoboFactory]

 

You kill me. So, you don't want to go after the people who want to kill Americans.

 

Did I say that?

 

And you don't want people to know what to do if their city happens to be attacked, because this would be fear mongering?

 

Because there's not a whole that can be done anyways. Damn dude, it's like in the Cold War era when they taught the kids if the Commies launch their missiles at the US, you should duck and cover underneath your desk. Obviosuly that would've done absolutely nothing, but it did scare people.

 

Statistically, plane crashes are rare, so why bother telling passengers where the oxygen masks are, right? They might get afraid...

 

There's been quite a few plane crashes in the last 4 years. Since 9/11, not a single person was killed by terrorists on American soil. These two things aren't comparable.

 

Look at the information they provide one with. It seems to fall under 2 categories. Either it's something that would be common sense to do anyways, but with the "because of terrorists" thrown in. Or something that's practically useless anyways, like duck and cover from an atomic blast.

[Biggie]

Not going to continue this pointless discussion, champ. It's apparent you think the Dept. of Homeland Security exists only to conjure up fear in some scheme out of 1984 to control the population, and that people shouldn't be informed as to what to do in the event of a terrorist attack because it wouldn't do any good anyways.

 

Repeat uber-wank

[HoboFactory]

People shouldn't be informed what to do?? What the hell can they do?? There's a plane headed towards the building I'm in at 500mph, thank God I packed a first aid kit in my office, these bandaids'll do me alotta good when I'm incinerated in the explosion! Please dude, they don't offer any useful services at all. They're not saying be prepared in case of emergency, it's more like "get ready for FOR TERRORISTS!!"

[ToadMan]

I think there is a lot of fear-mongering going on in the US right now. There is an almost irrational fear of terrorism, even though you are statistically unlikely to be killed by a terrorist.

 

Clearly this debate is circular i.e. that both sides can continue to argue, and neither will agree.

 

Peace

[pearanoid]

No matter what people think about the fear mongering, it worked.

 

People were told to be afraid of terrorists and it kept people afraid. They felt that Bush had the answers and he was a tough guy who wouldn't be pushed around and he got re-elected.

 

The US government keeps putting out lists of possible Canadian targets and trying to tell Canadians that they're not safe either, but most people here aren't buying it. I'm not sure why it is that many US citizens just eat it up. Maybe deep down people realize that the US does have more enemies because of the governments past "work".

 

It's fine to be prepared, but to live your life always worrying about an attack that will probably never come is just crazy. That's not living.

Edited January 16, 2005 by pearanoid

[ToadMan]

I think that's exactly right.

 

Peace

[ecnarf]

Well sure there are terrorists out there, but the likelihood of actually being killed by one is extremely low, they might as well be marketing a meteorite-impact safety helmets or something.  People take the threat far more seriously than they should.  For example, recently, in my state at least, gun sales went up with the "threat" of terrorism.  In reality what good would a gun be??  Certainly wouldn't be very useful; I'm sure plenty of people in New York had guns when the attack took place, didn't seem to have done any good, and yet people bought them like crazy??  Why?? Because they're scared and they want to protect themselves.  Fire departments, and local emergency serivices already tell people have have escape plans from their houses and to keep safety/emergency kits in case of a natural disaster.  So to tell people to do it in case of terrorism seems quite un-necessary as people should be doing it already; it would seem then that the only purpose to bring terrorism make people think that it's something they should genuinely be afraid of.  You made the comparison to fire, well one someone sees a discarded lighter on the ground, they don't get all hysterical and think it has to do with an arson plot.  In sharp contrast, right here in the town I live in, a huge panic was caused when some teenage guy found a slip of paper with Arabic text printed on it, alot of people believed they were onto something terrorist related.  A nearby school was even locked down.  They later determined the slip of paper was a label from a box of an Arabian tea from a local foreign foods store.

You kill me. So, you don't want to go after the people who want to kill Americans. And you don't want people to know what to do if their city happens to be attacked, because this would be fear mongering?

 

Christ.

 

Statistically, plane crashes are rare, so why bother telling passengers where the oxygen masks are, right? They might get afraid...

Actually, oxygen masks are there in the event that the plane cabin has a sudden drop in air pressure. I'm not sure what good an oxygen mask would be during an all-out crash.

 

And, seeing as I started the thread, I think I should clarify that I don't find the ad to be some Orwelian plot to control the entire population, it's really at heart reminding viewers (who, as I stated, are proportionally more likely to be "nascar dads" than not) that 9/11 happened, because when you take out the words "terrorist attack" from the message, it's a public service announcement for families to have a "ready plan" for a house fire. But, like all advertising agencies, the dept. of homeland security knows how to grab an audience's attention (as it did mine), by injecting the word "terrorist". How many families do you suppose had "ready plans" for a house fire or terrorist attack before 9/11? How many would you think had even given much thought to it? I'd say not many at all.

 

That's what I look at it as, another way to subtly keep the subject of "terrorism" in people's minds.