There are less conspicuous ends to achieve the same purpose. Take the Australian commercial of anti-terrorism hotline, for instance.
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9vXEaGsL8
States of vigilance come in all shapes and forms.
Posted by: Natalia | 11 Mar 2008 13:23:26
Didn't the United States create a hotline after 9/11 and insist that all citizens remain vigilant and report their "suspicious" neighbors??
how are these scare tactics any different?
Posted by: Jenny Tsu | 11 Mar 2008 19:39:39
Natakia, I didn't see or hear any racist propaganda on the Austrlian add did you.
The Iranian little propaganda soap opera was full of it.
Let's keep things in perspective.
Posted by: Robbins | 11 Mar 2008 22:58:10
I didn't say the commercial was racist, although this parody here reads Islamophobia into it:
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=EZI1gms9G0k&e
However, just like U.S scare tatics mentioned by Jenny Tsu, the "don't trust anybody" message is simply better disguised in the Western versions. But barely. Quoting my favorite part of the Australian ad, we should turn in people who have "downloaded documents from suspicious websites."
Who on Earth decides what makes a website suspicious? Who draws that line?
Posted by: Natalia | 12 Mar 2008 18:07:01