Editing Propaganda (section)

===Advertising===

Propaganda shares techniques with advertising and [[public relations]], each of which can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person, or brand. For example, after claiming victory in the [[2006 Lebanon War]], [[Hezbollah]] campaigned for broader popularity among Arabs by organizing mass rallies where Hezbollah leader [[Hassan Nasrallah]] combined elements of the local [[dialects of Arabic|dialect]] with [[classical Arabic]] to reach audiences outside Lebanon. Banners and billboards were commissioned in commemoration of the war, along with various merchandise items with Hezbollah's logo, flag color (yellow), and images of Nasrallah. T-shirts, baseball caps and other war memorabilia were marketed for all ages. The uniformity of messaging helped define Hezbollah's brand.<ref>{{cite book |last=Khatib |first=Lina |author-link=Lina Khatib |title=The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |page=84}}</ref>

In the journalistic context, advertisements evolved from the traditional commercial advertisements to include also a new type in the form of paid articles or broadcasts disguised as news. These generally present an issue in a very subjective and often misleading light, primarily meant to persuade rather than inform. Normally they use only subtle [[propaganda techniques]] and not the more obvious ones used in traditional commercial advertisements. If the reader believes that a paid advertisement is in fact a news item, the message the advertiser is trying to communicate will be more easily "believed" or "internalized". Such advertisements are considered obvious examples of "covert" propaganda because they take on the appearance of objective information rather than the appearance of propaganda, which is misleading. Federal law{{where|date=April 2021}} specifically mandates that any advertisement appearing in the format of a news item must state that the item is in fact a paid advertisement.

Edmund McGarry illustrates that advertising is more than selling to an audience but a type of propaganda that is trying to persuade the public and not to be balanced in judgement.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McGarry|first=Edmund D.|date=1958|title=The Propaganda Function in Marketing|journal=Journal of Marketing|volume=23|issue=2|pages=131–132|doi=10.2307/1247829|jstor=1247829}}</ref>