advertising vs. propaganda

Advertising vs. Propaganda

Advertisements and propaganda are very different forms of conveying knowledge to a community, public, or even a person. I personally have found the difference to be when someone or a company is “advertising”- they are working to give you useful knowledge about who they are and what their products and/or services consist of and how they can help you. Propaganda is different in more than one way, propaganda is used to convey someone’s opinion and the purpose is aimed at converting or corrupting mass opinions. Using propaganda is a way of influencing a group into thinking what you want them to think. A good example of these differences are when a commercial for the presidential election for 2012 comes on it should generally give you knowledge of when it will take place, where it will take place, and even who the candidates are that will be running for office. This would be a form of advertising whereas, another commercial comes on right after this one and it is a spite video of one of the democratic candidates. This video contains information that might be either true or false and is used for one purpose to get you to not vote for that candidate. An advertisement should endorse its own product or service not try and put down another product or service from a separate company. If you see an ad in a magazine and it says Gatorade helps promote good heart health and keeps you hydrated, and then you see an ad on the next page from PowerAde that says Gatorade is lame and the son of the Gatorade CEO is an inmate doing prison time, how does this make you feel about each of the companies and which would you buy when looking for a hydrating beverage?