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U.S. ad campaign asks world to buy American policies
Initiative to clear up ‘misunderstandings’ aimed primarily at Muslim world, Europe
The Globe and Mail (Canada), July 31, 2002
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
By DOUG SAUNDERS
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 – Page A9
In an apparent effort to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, the White House is trying to solve its foreign-policy woes with a promotional campaign to advertise the USA brand around the world.
The Office of Global Communications, a department reporting directly to the President, will try to do for American values and foreign policies what other international ad campaigns have done for Nike, Coke and Marlboro.
“We want to make sure that America’s message is coherent, is targeted and effective,” State Department spokesman Philip Reeker announced yesterday, breaking into the language of Madison Avenue. “I think it’s been glaring to all of us that there are clear misunderstandings about our culture, about our society, and indeed about our foreign policies.”
Alarmed by growing anti-American sentiments, especially in the Muslim world, the White House has devoted much of the last year trying to bolster the American image abroad and to counter opposition to the war on terrorism, the U.S. support of Israel and other controversial policies. The office is being established just as Washington is trying to build support among Arab nations and their citizens for a potential invasion of Iraq.
White House officials said the office will also direct its efforts to Europe, where citizens and leaders have been angered by the U.S. support of capital punishment, its withdrawal of funds from United Nations birth-control programs, its rejection of the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto environmental treaty and its increasingly protectionist trade policies.
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Unlike other long-established propaganda and “public diplomacy” initiatives such as the Voice of America radio network and the network of U.S. information centres abroad, the new office will use the more subtle and cloying techniques of Hollywood and the advertising industry to get its message across.
The office, which has been operating unofficially for months, will work with foreign journalists and broadcasters to create positive images of the United States that do not appear to be propaganda.
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An earlier attempt at establishing such an information office, under the command of the Pentagon, was shut down in January after the press learned that it would be used to spread false news stories abroad. Mr. Fleischer said yesterday that the new office would not spread disinformation.
State Department officials worried that the new office would undermine the credibility of serious U.S. diplomatic efforts. And veteran diplomats and Arab community leaders yesterday dismissed the office as an attempt to avoid dealing with the real concerns of foreign communities. “I just don’t think that you can take the Britney Spears of the world and substitute that for real dialogue and real interaction,” said Mahdi Bray of the Muslim-American Society. “Our nation has not necessarily been a fair broker in the region, especially as it relates to the Middle East conflicts.” Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would add hundreds of millions of dollars to such “public diplomacy” initiatives as launching satellite TV networks in the Middle East. The Office of Global Communications will be run by Tucker Eskew, an aide to Mr. Bush. Officials said it was conceived by Karen Hughes, a senior Bush aide who quit her position in April to live with her family in Texas.
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