of misleading impressions being portrayed to potential buyers, all in the name of doing

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1 In the world of high-line cars, as the car dealerships like to put it, there are a lot of misleading impressions being portrayed to potential buyers, all in the name of doing business. The general public is constantly being painted a picture of what an ideal high-line car owner, for example, should look like, what they should wear, how they should work, and how they could live if they owned a Cadillac of course. For the vast majority of people what they see on TV ads or in popular magazines determines what they like. The more glamourous the product appears, the more likely it is to do well in stores. Propaganda might be thought of as only being a wartime tool used by governments to try and persuade a large mass of people. But in fact its much more than that. It surrounds us in our daily lives being used by large corporations with their own specific target group of people. Cadillacʼs campaign for 2006 uses the illusion of success as their foundation for their propaganda ads. Cadillac uses three distinct tactics of propaganda in their TV commercials; Faulty Cause and Effect, Glittering Generalities, and Testimonial as defined in Propaganda: How Not To Be Bamboozled, an essay written by Donna Woolfolk Cross. Cadillac uses these forms of Propaganda in order to attract their target group more mature crowd of individuals (i.e. the ones that can afford a high-line car such as a Cadillac). In a thirty-second clip of one of Cadillacʼs many short films, Cadillac is using Crossʼs Faulty Cause and Effect tactic to lure in potential buyers to their product. Cadillac starts off their commercial clip using a beautiful young business woman that is dressed in an elegant black business suit. She is depicted walking confidently down the center of her office building between cubicles with her eyes fixed dead ahead and

2 her high heeled feet impacting the ground in synchronization with the background music that is blaring a song with lyrics saying, Here comes success!!! hooray success!!!. When she is spotted by her fellow male co-workers coming their way they instantly try and avoid her or tense up in a way that they canʼt be mistaken for not working. When the young women finally arrives at the elevator she finds a lone male co-worker obviously scared stiff with a pen in his T-shirt pocket. The music cuts off and they both stand next to each other facing forward in a short gap of silence until finally the young woman says, hello Chris and the lone male co-worker responds with a timid, hello then his pen in his pocket releases its ink all down his shirt. The young lady is then shown in her car laughing as she drives away with her background music re-joining her. In this commercial Cadillac wants us to believe that if you were to purchase their product, success would follow thereafter in the form of promotions, which would result in people giving you respect, and maybe even fear you. The pen releasing ink all over the male co-workers t- shirt pocket is a humorous thought because we all know that pens donʼt have emotions and therefore cant experience fear. This would be the human equivalent to wetting your pants. However the picture that Cadillac is trying to paint is that because this young lady is driving a Cadillac she is successful, and because she is successful she is respected; so much that humans and inanimate objects alike feel fear from her. Itʼs pretty clear that this commercial is not aimed at a younger audience, because they are not the ones working for big corporations yet, but more for those people that are in that particular situation and desire that promotion. Faulty Cause and Effect is defined by Cross as being, a causeand-effect relationship that may not be true. Just because one thing happened after

3 another doesnʼt mean that one caused the other. (Cross 129) So in other words, just because the young lady in the commercial is respected and successful doesnʼt mean that it all happened for her because she bought a Cadillac. She most likely bought the car after she received her promotion as a proclamation to the world that sheʼs somebody now. Probably the most popular way of getting your product noticed in todayʼs day and age is the use of well known celebrities in Testimonials. Celebrities are the trend setters of our modern world that need only to wear a product or make an appearance to gain the acceptance of thousands of people. In Cadillacʼs next commercial, they employ this tactic by using a celebrity to promote their product in Crossʼ Testimonial form of propaganda. Tiki Barber, a famous football player that made his break out not too long ago, is shown cruising down the road in a spotless black Cadillac SUV. Mr. Barber goes on to talk about the fact of when he first started playing professional football he was a second string back-up and wasnʼt till after the player he was backing up got hurt that he had his chance to become great. The entire time Mr. Barber is talking about how he took his chance, the camera moves into all kinds of angles shooting the car against skyscrapers and bridges and brightly lit buildings which lights bounces off the mirror looking paint on the car. The viewer is shown an example of a very fortunate, and more importantly, famous individual, who is very successful in life driving their product and talking about how anyone can be just as successful as they are. Cross writes, using the name of a man who is skilled and famous in one field to give a testimonial for something in another filed is unfair and unreasonable (Cross 132). We all know, of course, that all professional football players are the experts on

4 cars. Shouldnʼt honest car companies want leading experts in the automotive industry speaking out for their product? The answer is, why take the risk of getting a bad review from someone that nobody knows, when you can simply pay someone that everyone knows to do all the talking for you; and the best part is that you get to choose what they say! The simple truth is that the audience is so distracted by the illusion of success and all its luxuries, that the viewer overlooks the most important fact that not everyone can be a great athlete like Tiki Barber. As a matter of fact it takes more than just being an great athlete it takes a little luck as even Tiki Barber admitted, it wasnʼt till after the player I was backing up got hurt that I had my chance to become great. One thing that every Cadillac commercial has in common are those great sounding catch phrases at the end of every commercial, but what do they really mean? These catch phrases are called Glittering Generalities, as Cross writes, We believe in, fight for, live by ʻvirtue wordsʼ which we feel deeply about, these sound good, but when we examine them closely, they turn out to have no specific, definable meaning. They just make us feel good. (Cross 124). A Glittering Generality is not meant to be examined. Its whole purpose is to add that little extra seasoning to the overall flavor of the idea that is trying to be sold using catchy phrases. In many ways Cadillacʼs ads are full of these mealiness phrases. Phrases like, sometimes yoga doesnʼt cut it used to describe a older woman whipping around winding mountain roads and apparently feeling some kind of satisfaction that she lacks from yoga, but what is the relevance of yoga to driving an automobile? Absolutely nothing. Its hard enough mustering the will to head out into our traffic jammed streets and freeways, even when are obligations require us to, so taking an afternoon drive for no specific reason is highly unlikely.

5 Another phrase that Cadillac employs is, Nothing is constant in life except change, or is it? this phrase would take the average reader at least another run through to fully comprehend and even then they might still feel bewildered. Cadillac is trying to imply that their cars are timeless and the values, they started their company with, have not been influenced or altered with time. But perhaps the true Glittering Generality phrase used by Cadillac is their new slogan, Life, liberty and the pursuit right off the bat you feel good knowing that something about this car company is truly American, after all it closely resembles our Nationʼs slogan. This car will bring us happiness (even though its not stated, but instead implied). When used correctly Glittering Generalities can be an effective tool of Propaganda for the average person to remember a company by its catchy phrase or slogan. Propaganda is used very effectively by large corporations all around the world, playing to the emotions and dreams of the masses. It sets the ideal goal for many by portraying the perfect scenario for their products. Weʼve all been victims of some type of Propaganda at some point in our lives, whether we admit it or not its simply a case of what we find attractive and interesting. Propaganda is something that will stay with us for many years to come, knowing how to spot it and become wiser in our decision making should be a goal that we should all strive to obtain. It is a very feasible goal as long as we learn to block out the Glittering Generalities by searching for the deeper meanings and not letting us be taken by fantasy phrases. We also need to listen and pay attention to who exactly is giving us Testimonials and whether or not they are qualified to share with us their opinions, and finally keep a wary eye out for Faulty Cause and Effect, not everything happens because a specific event made it so, even

6 though its incredibly easy to make that connection. One thing is for sure the world would be less interesting if we knew how everyone thought, if nothing else at least Propaganda keeps us entertained. I would probably still buy a Cadillac if I had that kind of money, not only for the statement I would make to everyone that sees me in it, but also because I heard that Tiki Barber owns one.