G.W. Bush has the “horse apples” pitch down pat. Which is basically the forte of the creative director of an advertising agency.

For the uninitiated, the responsibility of a creative director (CD) is to (l) understand the mechanism of persuasion, and (2) be an expert at “image” making: influencing the public to believe what you want them to believe.

Having been the CD of two ad agencies, it is this technique of saturating the brain with dazzling hyperbole that I was pretty good at. So, when I say that Bush makes a good CD, I know whereof I speak.

The Truth, of course, is an issue, but being able to persuasively “shade” the truth is a CD’s stock in trade.

George Bush has a product to sell. And he’s good at it. By delicately shading the truth he has the public believing what is probably the most unrealistic and dangerous concept in advertising history. And true to a creative director’s job, Bush keeps repeating this mantra over and over: A WAR ON TERRORISM TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY.

What a line! What an idea! What an objective! What a bunch of crap.

The REAL world was never “safe” and never will be. Moreover, a war on terrorism can not be “won”, because terrorism isn’t a war, it’s a revolt against foreign interference. The rising up of terrorists in Iraq, after Bush announced the war is over, is proof enough.

As for democracy, what makes G.W. and his “advertising” team so arrogant as to think that democracy is the political panacea for the entire world, when half the world never even heard of democracy, and the other half doesn’t give a rat’s patooty about it.

The fact is, all we’ve gotten so far from the Bush “advertising” team has been no information, misinformation, or contrived information

For “no” information we need only listen to the G.W.’s marionette, Tony Snow who opines only what the “creative director” wants us to know, and not a word more. What’s more, with secret documents, political options, and war contingencies locked up at the Pentagon, we are blank as to what our government is up to. And our esteemed media might as well be blacked out for all the information we get from them.

For “misinformation”, consider this statement about the CIA’s on-going intelligence foul-ups from Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback, the Costs and Consequences of American Empire: “The Central Intelligence Agency has an almost unblemished record of screwing up every “secret” armed intervention it ever undertook.” Johnson then lists them: the Bay of Pigs, the failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, the killing of Chile’s Salvador Allende, Reagan’s Iran-contra war against Nicaragua, and all the snoop flops in-between.

The CIA is a loose cannon because its budget and operations is secret, and Congress is too indifferent to its constitutional functions to rein in this rogue bureaucracy. Being told nothing, the American public keeps right on thinking that we have the world’s best intelligence agency.

And lastly, the “contrived” information, a key talent of Creative Director George Bush and his bafflegab specialists at U.S. Advertising, Inc.

If you recall, we were “sold” the idea that 9/11 was Osama bin Laden’s dirty work, and that we’d probably find him in Afghanistan. Four years, and three thousand dead troops later, we’re still there, but no Osama.

Next, G.W. “sold” us on the proposition that terrorism attacks had actually been planned by Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and that he had weapons of the “mass destruction” variety. So we deployed half our navy and air force and 140,000 troops to squash the dictator, find the WMD’S, free the Iraqi people, and bring democracy to the region.

Yes, Saddam was caught and hung.  But there never were any WMD’s, not even a smell of democracy, and instead of freeing the Iraqi people we began calling them terrorist and killing them. Then we installed a police state in which Iraqi hatred, resistance, and vengeance is not just alarming, but constantly a deadly reality.

Finally, there is the coming kick-off “ads” introducing a “new campaign”—not decided as yet---which will be spoon-fed to us by the Bush “advertising” team. And probably we’ll swallow that bowl of swill too.

If the American public ever opens its eyes they will see the “Mr. Goodwrench” theory of advertising at work here, and the Bush team will lose some of its mystique. “Mr. Goodwrench” was the image used by GM to portray the idea that they have the best mechanics in the business. But that’s not the point. If people stop to think about that line they realize the truth: “There is no Mr. Goodwrench or Mr. Badwrench, there’s only Mr. Wrench.”

Creative Director Bush, however, happens also to be the President of the United States. So if he says, there IS a Mr. Goodwrench who would dare suggest that this guy is hoodwinking us again with another classic fast shuffle?

Bottom line is pretty clear: George Bush, creative director of U.S. Advertising, Inc., heads up a bevy of baloney pushers that are, without a doubt, the biggest bunch of secretive, fraudulent, conniving con men that ever got into the advertising game.

So, caveat emptor. These guys are devious to the core, and crazy as hell, but they know their business.

James T. Moore
http://jamestmoore.us/