Politics and communication

Counter propaganda: “It is what it is” advertising

Electoral propaganda is a key focus of the electoral process. It is also known as a fundamental opportunity for candidates to present their platforms and urge voters to choose them, and this applies to all elections in all countries, at different levels, by their locals, parliamentary, presidential or other elections. the use of modern technology has become more common and influential, and the candidates are not doing such propaganda themselves as in the past, but through specialized teams with the necessary skills and the ability to influence public opinion and attract voters for the benefit of one or the other candidate.

While recriminations are common in election propaganda. In the United States and other countries, the last campaigning for last November's U.S. presidential election has an unprecedented pattern of campaign propaganda: the two candidates, Trump and Biden, were not focusing their campaigns on what they can offer to the voter, and most of their efforts were aimed at undermining each other. Democratic candidate Joseph Biden's election campaign staff has alternatively chosen an attack tactic; he may have spotted the failures of President Donald Trump's speech during an interview with the famous media site Axios; on the President's management of the Covid 19 pandemic; the latter said that the number of deaths is: “it is what it is”. Joseph Biden's election campaign quickly stung this quote and quickly staged a propaganda video. Firstly, on the technical level; the journalist's question "how a thousand of American are dying a day?" was written bold and yellow which is the color that attracts the most attention, and in the semantic this color refers to produce falsehood and deception, selfishness, lies, uncertainty, lack of emotions. This color has always been associated with outlaws, the persecuted and the excluded. Yellow Is often associated with danger. Then the editing team cut the response of the president Donald Trump " it is what it is" and they used the effects of echo and repetition of this sentence with a subtitle pf the president Donald Trump with a background of photos of victims transported and medical staff desperate and families of victims watching from the windows the sick people, they also put images of victims and medical staff in black and white, these colors represent the tragedy, death, horror, a black future.

The communication team knew how to exploit this sentence which refers to the horror against Trump, first the repetition refers to the reminder, it creates a rhythm, and reinforces the idea, the sensation, the emotion. Otherwise, using the echo and the sound effects makes the viewer feel inside the event, because it creates an atmosphere that makes him feel reality: this the reason why the sentence “it is what it is” is used by the democrats to pick up the intention of American citizens.

If I were a member of the candidate's communication team, I would change the first part when the President Donald trump started talking, and make it in black and white instead of colors. I would also focus on the body language of Donald Trump; when he said that sentence he looked away and that look insinuates that the person in question is lying or tries to avoid confrontation or just ultimately does not care. For the sound effects, I would change it with the sound of heartbeat device while the patient is dying when they showed pictures of victims and medical staff, and for the last shot I would put a picture of a family member crying.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2020