Make propagandart to save the human race

Call it persuasion, storytelling, advertising, public relations, or influence—propaganda works, which is why it’s used all around us all the time.

I hated reading books when I was in school. And somewhere around age 14 or 15, I realized I didn’t hate reading, I just didn’t like any of the books that we were supposed to read for homework or special projects. When I found content that interested me, I couldn’t get enough. Thanks to the amazing internet, I can sample audio or print of virtually anything written and I can digitally toss aside whatever bores me.

Copywriting and advertising are favorite topics of mine, especially while building a career helping organizations pitch themselves to get contracts, grants, awards, or press coverage. Recently, I’ve been absorbing early 20th century essays, pamphlets, and books about public relations. And as the father of PR, Edward Bernays, regularly told people—PR is propaganda. 

Early advertisers learned from trial and error that the public was largely ignorant and irrational, and that it was impossible for individuals to acquire the expertise needed to make informed decisions about complex issues. None of us like to hear that, but we also don’t like knowing that it’s easier to train a smart dog than a dumb one. Even the most brilliant mathematician alive is ignorant and irrational about a great many things. Some of us have met incredible thinkers who have no clue how an API or VPN works, and if pressed, would guess they’re both UHF channels. 

Propaganda is a communication strategy used to influence public opinion and behavior, with the goal of promoting a particular agenda or ideology. Propaganda is a powerful force in shaping public opinion, used by governments, corporations, and any other organizations trying to promote their interests. It’s why I tell people some of my work is propagandart to save the human race. Bicycle Buddha card decks, memes, and mockumentaries are some examples of how I apply principles of propaganda to motivate more people to create happy, healthy communities.

Like any tool, propaganda can be used for good or evil. It can be used to make an outdoor dining pilot project permanent, or to double the size of Main Street like a wrecking ball through town. For each, there’s a communications component for the crowd and for the individual. 

Crowd work and solo work.

The psychology of the crowd is different from the psychology of the individual. When you’re part of a crowd, you lose your individuality and become more suggestible and prone to irrational behavior. When a Virginia Tech fan is packed in with 65,000 other Hokies, that person will jump and roar as Enter Sandman rocks the football stadium. But if it’s just three Hokies watching the team on a TV in Best Buy, it’s a different response. Crowds are driven more by emotion and enthusiasm than by reason or logic. 

We’re still susceptible to persuasion in 1-on-1 settings, it’s just a different type of appeal. The messaging isn’t quite as bumper sticker-y as with crowds. Advertising campaigns are the best learning resources for individual persuasion. They appeal to your sense of belonging, worth, mood, good taste, and so on. Propaganda to an individual like a mayor or planning commissioner is about making them the hero. Persuading an individual like a fellow urbanist is about demonstrating how they can be a better urbanist. 

Common propaganda techniques.

Watch for and learn from the common forms of propaganda. It’s pointless to get angry at the fact that it exists. Get over it, and learn to identify what works and what doesn’t. Then do your best to use the messaging and persuasion tactics that seem to resonate with your audience. 

Using symbols. Simplifying complex information makes it easier for people to understand. Visualize your local functional classification map or zoning map. Seemingly innocent lines and polygons go a long way to influence what’s considered reasonable or unreasonable. 

Creating a narrative. Storytelling techniques like having a hero, conflict, and resolution stick in people’s minds. You’ll see this frequently with traffic engineering projects claiming to reduce congestion, or land use projects to increase housing affordability.

Using repetition and slogans. One of the best ways to reinforce a message. Transportation, economic development, and planning departments do this all the time. I’m sure you’ve seen slogans like "Building a Safer Route 1" or “Live, Work, Play” or “Share the Road.” 

Appealing to emotions. Positive and negative emotions, like fear and hope. Public agencies use emotional appeals to persuade the public to support infrastructure projects. You’ve seen images of happy families in a new development to evoke hope and promote their project. Auto manufacturers do the same with families using the latest SUV. 

Read old books.

Here’s a reading list if you’re intrigued by psychology and persuasion. I’ll warn you that a lot of this content is hard to get through. But it’s well worth it, even if you read in short bursts.  

Propaganda by Edward Bernays, 1928. The seminal work on propaganda and public relations. Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and a pioneer in the field of public relations, explores how to shape public opinion and behavior.

The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie, 1915. Practical tips and techniques for delivering effective speeches and presentations. Carnegie gets into principles to sway an audience that are still used 100 years later.

The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor, 1911. Explores ways to influence and motivate workers to improve productivity. I’m not suggesting copying Taylor’s mindset, but to understand how his ideas influenced work.

The Psychology of Advertising by Walter Dill Scott, 1903. The psychological principles behind effective advertising and persuasion. Scott's work helped to establish the field of advertising psychology that we now take for granted as normal.

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, 1899. Digs into the social and economic status symbols that people use to signal their worth to others. Veblen's ideas have been applied to most commercials you’ve ever seen or heard, from luxury brands down to beer choice.

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon, 1895. Examines the psychological characteristics of crowds and how they can be manipulated through propaganda and other means of persuasion. Particularly interesting paired with today’s work by Jonathan Haidt.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu, sometime BC. The ancient Chinese military treatise we’ve all heard about isn’t directly about persuasion or propaganda, but its principles have been widely applied in those fields. It explores strategies for psychological manipulation and deception.