Administration Trying to Market War to Public, Some Ad Experts Say
Is the idea of war in the Persian Gulf being packaged, marketed and sold to Americans by the Bush Administration in much the same way that Madison Avenue sells toothpaste, car wax and deodorant?
We know that cigarettes are killers, but thanks in part to ingenious marketing we buy them by the tens of millions. We know that diamonds are not exactly life’s essentials, but clever advertising has persuaded many of us that no marriage can be complete without the gems. But what about war? Can careful packaging--arranged with one eye on sure-fire marketing formulas--persuade Americans that war is the best alternative?
Today is the last day for Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to clear his army out of Kuwait or risk being forced out by a multinational force led by American soldiers. Before the first shot is fired--or rocket launched--the President would certainly want a majority of Americans standing behind that decision. So, what kind of marketing job has the Bush Administration done trying to persuade Americans to buy into the use of force?
Perhaps no one recognizes quality marketing better than the wizards of Madison Avenue. Interviews with some of the nation’s top ad executives reveal that many believe that the Administration is trying very hard to market war to the American people. But ad executives strongly disagree over how successful President Bush has been trying to sell a product that comes with no guarantees.
“Probably the best advertising jobs of all are done by governments to convince people to go to war,” said Jerry Della Femina, president of the New York ad agency Della Femina McNamee Inc., which creates ads for American Isuzu. “They have to convince people that they will get killed for a good reason.”
The news media has become the Administration’s best advertising vehicle, said Della Femina. “How many times can you turn on CNN and see how terrible these people are? People are slowly but surely being convinced that the other side is the all-consuming devil. And Bush is making war the only solution.”
But that is no simple solution to sell. “Selling a war is even tougher than marketing a President,” said Edward L. Wax, president and chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Inc. North America, which creates ads for Toyota. “To sell a President, all you need is a majority vote. But I don’t know how you would market this war. How do you sell people on the fact that we should move in and rescue Kuwait? Certainly, you can never sell anyone on war who doesn’t want it.”
Of course, that hasn’t stopped the President from trying.
“The Administration is employing as sophisticated a marketing technique in this as they would in any reelection campaign,” said John M. Connors Jr., president and chief executive of the Boston ad agency Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, which creates ads for the Infiniti car line. “But every administration does a presell before it goes into battle.”
How? “For the most part, it’s maintaining a continual measurement of Americans’ attitudes towards war,” said Connors. “They’re continually testing concept statements to see how they fly.”
Right now, the Administration is in “total control” of presenting a patriotic image of war, said Connors. “But when Hussein puts chemicals into the brains of 50,000 infantry men, the Administration will lose its spin control and people will ask, ‘Why for God sakes did we send them there?’ ”
Some top ad executives who strongly back Bush’s actions insist that to equate the formulation of the Administration’s Persian Gulf policies with marketing tactics is unfair.
“I don’t think you can advertise war,” said Graham Phillips, chairman of the New York ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, which creates ads for American Express. “What we’re really talking about here is public relations and communications, not advertising and marketing.”
Certainly, public relations is on the minds of British government officials. They have turned to one of the world’s largest public relations firm, London-based Shandwick PLC, to help them monitor changes in public opinion as the gulf crisis develops.
“The Administration is demeaned by the wolves who howl that this is just a marketing job,” said Sean Kevin Fitzpatrick, chief creative officer of the New York agency McCann-Erickson Worldwide, which creates ads for Coca-Cola. But Fitzpatrick added: “I suppose all ideas are in some ways packaged and marketed, from Christianity to Republicanism to war.”
Some ad executives who support the Administration’s Persian Gulf policy agree that the situation involves plenty of marketing strategy--but they say it’s being done well.
“There are those who are for this war and those who oppose any war, no matter what the circumstances. The real object is to reach the in-betweeners,” said George A. Fertitta, president and chief executive of the New York-based agency Margeotes Fertitta & Weiss, which creates ads for Godiva chocolates and Remy Martin cognac. “The Administration has done a good marketing job by not presenting this as a war to be fought because of oil.”
On that note, there is strong disagreement.
“I wouldn’t say they’ve sold the concept very well,” said Ed McCabe, the veteran ad man who opened a new New York agency, McCabe & Co., on Monday. “But you can’t sell a product people don’t like. This is not an account I would want to take.”
A flurry of anti-war ads have recently begun to appear nationally. Print ads have shown up in various newspapers. And last week, executives at some cable networks and network affiliates in different regions broadcast anti-war spots.
Most of the ads were put together on shoestring budgets by peace activists or religious groups that generally lack expert advice in marketing their messages.
But what if the high powers on Madison Avenue took a whack at advertising for peace? That is, what if the same creative people who gave us Joe Isuzu and Mr. Clean suddenly put their minds to creating ads that tried to sell diplomacy over war?
Of course, there is little likelihood this would happen. Aside from the obvious fact that there is no money to make in such a venture, many top agencies refuse to do any political advertising.
But if they had no other choice but to tackle the assignment, how would some of this country’s top ad executives advertise peace through diplomacy?
“I’d probably just quote one of the 10 Commandments,” said David Ogilvy, the American advertising legend who is chairman of WPP Group and who now resides in France. “I like the one that says, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ ”
Ogilvy noted, however, that he generally supports the President and would have no interest in creating such an ad. Those sentiments were shared by Graham Phillips, chief executive at the agency Ogilvy co-founded years ago, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Nevertheless, Phillips was willing to suggest his ideas for an effective anti-war ad campaign.
“You’d have to put up the argument: Is it worth 10,000 American lives?” said Phillips. “Is it worth all of them dying in the sand?”
Likewise, said John M. Connors Jr., president and chief executive of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, “I’d show the cost of war. I’d show a dead man in uniform--or a 19-year-old boy with all the promise in the world--who is armed to the teeth. The ad should ask: How many of these young men are we willing to invest to continue our current lifestyle?”
Della Femina, president of the ad agency that creates ads for American Isuzu, suggested a TV commercial that “brings to life the consequences of war.”
For such a TV spot, Della Femina said he would try to show the horrible effects of war, much as some anti-smoking ads show the deadly effects of smoking.
“I might go to a Veterans hospital and talk to someone who can’t walk about what war did to them,” said Della Femina. In particular, Della Femina said, he would talk to war veterans who went off to war in favor of fighting, then came back “with their lives broken.”
Kuwait Airways ads are telling consumers that the airline will be flying to Kuwait again--soon.
Broadcast ads on CNN as well as print ads claim that the airline will be flying to Kuwait “any day now.” This, despite the fact that the possibility of war looms heavy in the Persian Gulf, and that 15 of the government-run airline’s 23 jets have fallen into Iraqi hands.
Are the ads a bit too hopeful? “If there is no hope, there is no life,” said Gerard Tateossian, manager of the New York office of Kuwait Airways, which continues to fly from New York to London to Cairo. “We must have hope that we are going back to Kuwait soon.”
