Propaganda – How Images Influence Us

We’ve surrounded by frozen people.

When you stop and think about it for a second – it’s kind of strange.

That every time you step outside you’re confronted of hundreds of images of people frozen in time.

On advertising billboards by the side of the road. On your social media newsfeed. In the newspaper. Frozen people are everywhere.

The photograph was invented in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce. Since then, images of people frozen still have appeared all around us. Nowadays we’re completely accustom to seeing these images everywhere. So much so that we don’t give them a second thought.

But if you were able to travel back in time to the 1500’s, pick a stranger at random and show them a simple photograph – they would probably think it was witchcraft or a message from god.

Perhaps it’s worth taking a second to think about these images we see everywhere, because…

Most images carry a message.

Images are a medium. Just like the telephone or the email. Images are a method of communicating with others.

They’re created by people who have motives and agendas of their own. Almost every single image you see is someone trying influence you.

All images you absorb are influencing you at all times. Because your subconscious brain absorbs all visual information it is given. Whether you like it or not.

Images have the power to influence even the very smartest of us.

After all, our brain is evolved to live in tribes of roughly 150 people. Not to deal with modern society.

This article will be split up into 3 sections:

1. Images in Politics

2. Images in Advertising

3. Images in Social Media

We’ll start by using an image of Jeremy Corbyn in The Sun newspaper to demonstrate how images influence us.

Propaganda – Images in Politics

The Sun is the most popular newspaper in the UK with a readership of roughly 30 million. This particular newspaper was released just before the 2017 UK general election.

The purpose of this image is to convince swing voters not to vote for Jeremy Corbyn on election day.

The question is, can such an obvious piece of propaganda really have an effect?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

The human mind is incredibly susceptible to images like these. We might think we’re smart but the older part of our brain (The part that was evolved to live in tribes of around 150 people) can be easily swayed.

Photographs didn’t exist 200,000 years ago. So the older part of our brain can’t tell the difference between a photograph of someone and a real human being.

Our subconscious brain understands the image of Jeremy Corbyn as if he’s a member of our tribe. After all, that’s what the older part of our brain is built for.

Our subconscious brain absorbs all stimuli from the environment. With no exceptions.

And if you’re exposed to an image of Jeremy Corbyn looking unintelligent your subconscious brain will absorb that information just like anything else.

This can have an effect on how you feel about the idea of Corbyn as a leader. Because the images you see in media bury themselves deep into your subconscious.

Consequently, this can affect your outward behaviours. Because human beings are driven predominantly by tribal emotions.

There’s a well-known saying in the field of neurology: What fires together wires together.

Your brain is constantly building associations between things. Road = Dangerous. Oven = Hot. Our brain makes neural pathways between different stimuli.

And when two brain cells fire at the same time, they link or “wire” together. Propaganda has the ability to take any stimuli and “wire” it with different emotions. In this case: Corbyn = Unintelligent. And unintelligent people don’t make good tribe leaders.

When we see simple assertions (Eg. Corbyn is unintelligent) we usually absorb their messages on some level. Even if we’re not conscious of their impact.

Advertisers learned long ago that one of the most fundamental lessons of propaganda is: once someone has absorbed a message, the battle is essentially won.

Assertions offer a quick and easy way to gain a foothold in people’s minds.

(The mainstream media is full of political propaganda)

During the Nazi regime, Joseph Goebbels bombarded the German public with propaganda associating Jews with rats.

Rats cause a feeling of disgust in human beings. This propaganda aimed to build a subconscious association between Jews and a feeling of disgust.

Remember – what fires together wires together.

After months and years of this association being absorbed into the subconscious of the German public, many German people began to feel disgust towards the Jews.

A neurological connection was made between Jewish people and a feeling of disgust.

Jews = Disgust

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it” – Joesph Goebbels

It’s incredibly easy to make any politician look like an idiot. In fact, you can do this to any human being on earth. Take video footage of that person and continually pause it until you can get their face frozen looking as stupid as possible.

Newspapers in the UK use this technique shamelessly.

While this may be crude and blatantly obvious propaganda, that doesn’t mean it’s not effective.

“It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, it’s task is to lead to success” – Joseph Goebbels

Political parties are constantly using the media as a tool to change the public’s emotions about their opposition. In the run up to any election, you can expect to see countless images like this one – trying to make you feel differently about particular candidates.

Because people vote with tribal emotions. Not rational thought.

After candidate Carl Benjamin was accused of making racist remarks on Twitter, this particular image was used across multiple news outlets.

While there are countless images of Carl Benjamin available to choose from, they all chose to use the exact same image. Why?

Because this image conveys defensiveness. With his hand raised towards the camera this body language sub-communicates untrustworthiness.

This is not a randomly chosen image. The images you see in media are rarely ever randomly chosen (Especially around high-stakes issues like politics). They’re chosen by someone for some purpose.

After being exposed to this defensive looking image of Carl Benjamin at the top of the article, the audience may develop negative feelings towards him before they even start reading. They will then read the rest of the article through the emotional filter that the image created.

In other words, they will start reading the article with the expectation of disliking Carl Benjamin. And they will read every single word on the page through an emotional filter that already harbours negative feelings towards him.

The brave, handsome man stands in front of the American flag looking wistfully off into the distance. The goal of this image is to build an association between the navy and feelings of pride and meaning.

This poster was distributed throughout America during WW2 and millions of men were exposed to it.

If the subconscious brain of a young man viewing this poster could speak, it would say something like this:

“OK. So the Navy is linked to feelings of pride and meaning. Let’s make neural connections between the idea of the Navy and those emotions. Oh. And the man in the poster is handsome. Let’s make a neural connection between the idea of the Navy and a potential increase in sex appeal.”

Upon viewing this poster, a neural connection between the navy and these desirable feelings is built. And upon repeated exposure to similar images like this, that neural pathway is strengthened.

This young man may eventually make the decision to join the navy. If asked about his motivation for joining, he might simply say “Joining the Navy is just the right thing to do”.

Completely unaware of the effects the pro-navy propaganda may have had on him. And completely unaware that he’s joining the navy because of the feelings purposefully planted in him through the propaganda.

“Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will”. – Joseph Goebbels

Propaganda – Images In Advertising

Advertising is an alternate reality of superior human beings.

In the images you see in advertising, people are happier, more fashionable, sexier, more carefree and more successful.

A perfect frozen world.

Almost everywhere you go, images are lying to you. (And yes advertising DOES work on you)

Let’s start with real-estate advertising, shall we?

This young couple looks rather happy don’t they. And look at the way she’s looking up at him. She’s into him. He bought them a house and now he’s dead sexy.

Propaganda is primal. All advertising appeals to our deepest emotional drives. And almost anything can be associated with an increase in sex appeal. Buying a house is no exception.

The man in this advert is chosen because he’s handsome and the woman is chosen because she is pretty. And we all want to be beautiful.

This image creates a subconscious association in our minds between buying a house and being sexually attractive.

As you browse through this website looking for a real-estate agent, this image ensures that your emotions are leading you in the right direction. (In the direction of handing over your money).

You will read the information throughout the rest of the website through the emotional filter that this image creates.

Doesn’t this seem like the best job ever? The kids are all well-behaved and clearly enthusiastic about learning English. Look at how cute they are! And there are only 4 students in the class. Very manageable!

Look how happy the teacher is, it’s like she can’t believe how lucky she is to have such a fantastic job.

What’s the reality of teaching English to kids in China? Class sizes range from 7-50 (Seriously, 50). Many of the students have no interest in learning English whatsoever and would rather talk Chinese with their mates.

Often the classrooms have no air-conditioning and the teacher is given nothing more than a blackboard and a piece of chalk to work with.

But you wouldn’t know any of this just looking at the advertisement. Because advertising is an alternative reality in which everything is perfect.

Of course the teacher in the advert is slim, attractive and dressed successfully.

Once again, this image puts job seekers into the right emotional state and they will read the rest of the job advertisement through the positive emotional filter that the image creates.

Just look at how her skin glows! Look at those white teeth and those clear eyes (which have no doubt been edited in Photoshop) Does she look healthy or what?

A quick glance at the ingredients list and you’ll quickly find out that this product is crammed with sugar. And what does sugar do? It rots teeth. It ages skin. Keep drinking Fami and you can be sure that you’ll never look like the girl on the box. (The same is true for other so called “healthy” drinks)

Of course, parents don’t have time to check ingredients lists. The kids will love the sweet taste and the parents will feel good that they’re feeding their child something healthy (Or so they think).

The image on the carton builds an association in your mind between Fami and health. You will feel good about buying the product (whether it’s actually healthy or not).

Advertising might seem incredibly confusing and complex, but actually it’s very simple.

The goal of most advertising is to link the product to something on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Take any natural want or need that a human being has and you can build an association between that need and a product. Even if that association doesn’t exist.

Coca-Cola commercials will link their product to youth and happiness. This association has no basis in reality whatsoever. In fact, the sugar in Coke ages your skin and can have negative effects on your mood.

Yet it doesn’t matter if the association is true or not. The advertising will build that positive association in your mind whether you like it or not. And next time you stand in front of the drinks fridge, buying a Coke will just feel right.

Once you understand the pattern of linking natural human wants to products, you will be able to have a good understanding of almost all advertisements that you see.

Propaganda – Images In Social Media

People are natural born marketers.

Social Media gained worldwide popularity in around 2010 and within months people had already learned to advertise themselves.

Social media is a human marketplace and people are very sophisticated in advertising their own personal brand in return for social currency (Likes, shares etc).

Social media is filled with propaganda. Through careful image selection and image retouching; people convince their audience that their life is far better than it actually is. (This can have serious negative effects on the mental health of women and girls in particular)

Any content that negatively affects their own personal brand is carefully edited out. And “candid” photos attempt to convince the audience that their social media page is an authentic version of themselves.

And just like advertising, on social media people are constantly trying to associate themselves with something that reflects positively on themselves.

We see tigers as brave, courageous and dangerous.Take a photo of yourself sitting next to one and you associate yourself with those characteristics. (At least, that’s the idea).

We post images of ourselves travelling and our audience begins to see us as an adventurous person.

And we post photos of our food looking delicious and perfect, in order to associate our own identity with a feeling of perfection and “having it all together”

You might feel completely bemused by people who feel the need to show us photos of the food they eat. After all, why the hell would I care what you’re eating for lunch?

But the photo isn’t about the food. It’s about them. What might seem like a pointless photo of someone’s lunch is actually an attempt to advertise their personal brand.

Their name is written right next to the image. It’s on their social media page. And the photo of their lunch is an extension of them. You subconsciously associate the image of their lunch with the person themselves.

That’s why people reorganise their food to look perfect before taking the photo. (Ok the plate goes here..and I’ll move the cup a little to the left..). Because if their photo looks perfect and beautiful, their audience will associate them with those very same quantities.

Let’s face it: we all do this. All images posted on social media are propaganda and therefore, like all propaganda, should be treated with scrutiny.

All images on social media are posted are more perfect than reality.

So that’s the power of images. Now you know what those frozen people are there for.

And remember, almost every single image is someone trying to convince you of something.