175, all subjects are history.

176, propaganda is to manipulate expression to form popular views, thus affecting people's actions.

Every part of this book is a discussion of the "principle" in order to find the deepest mechanism of action of what we want to do. People are constantly pursuing new knowledge and making progress in various disciplines, but people can't see that academic progress is mostly "pseudo-progress". The main value of academic rubbish produced by scholars in order to create some "new knowledge" is to help pseudo-scholars grandstanding, deceive the world, steal others' names, and make money and time.

All disciplines are history, so we should learn from the founders of disciplines and the basic science of applied disciplines.

The basic subject of advertising is communication, which originated from the political propaganda of war mobilization. Lasswell, one of the founders of communication studies, wrote a book "Propaganda Skills of World War I", which analyzed the organization and skills of the propaganda of the two periodicals of World War I and established his status as a master.

In the past 30 years, the essence of advertising and mass communication has gradually drifted away, and various theories of "accurate communication" have been developed. This is a tortuous road. Why? Because once the communication is accurate, it is useless.

The reason why I can't, as I said before, is because the advertisement is aimed at unconscious pills. Once you have consciousness, you lose your function. There were theories about "unconscious pills" in the 1920s and 1930s, which were called "panacea theory" and "subcutaneous injection theory". What is a panacea? It was bombing, and it was razed to the ground with one shot. What about subcutaneous injection? It is a needle. You give him a shot. What's there to communicate? The communication cost is too high, just a needle.

The cost of communication is not only high for propagandists, but also for audiences. People need to communicate with many lives. Every peddler has to communicate with others. Do people have that much time? You'd better not communicate anything. One, two, three, check! Everyone in this family is very tidy. So don't spend so much time making brands, and don't spend other people's time.

Lasswell has the most accurate definition of propaganda:

Propaganda, in the broadest sense, is the skill of manipulating expressions to influence people's actions.

For this definition, I want to adjust it again and change it into three paragraphs:

Propaganda is a skill to manipulate expression to form popular opinions and thus influence people's actions.

This definition can explain the case we talked about before.

For example, "give melatonin as a gift." By manipulating his expression-giving gifts with melatonin, he formed a popular view-giving gifts with melatonin, thus affecting people's actions-giving gifts with melatonin.

"I am afraid of getting angry and drinking Wang Laoji." By manipulating his expression, he formed a popular view-afraid of getting angry and drinking Wang Laoji-afraid of getting angry and drinking Wang Laoji. Thus affecting people's behavior-drinking Wang Laoji.

This is the principle and mechanism of action. These two things, the shower will send melatonin; Fear of getting angry, drink Wang Laoji; I can't talk anymore, and if I talk again, I'll die. We can no longer discuss why we should send melatonin or why we should drink Wang Laoji. Assertion, repetition, infection, the work is over, and everything is superfluous.

In the previous definition, we divided propaganda into three sections: manipulating expression-forming opinions-influencing actions. In the former Soviet Union, propaganda was divided into propaganda and agitation, so it can be emphasized separately. However, propaganda itself contains incitement. Without agitation, it is not propaganda. Many advertisements amuse themselves, but do not encourage consumers to buy, so they are not successful. If you really have nothing to say, just add "Come on!" Talk is better than nothing.

At this time, ethical problems came, and many friends were unhappy. When people see the truth, they are always unhappy-manipulating expression, forming opinions and influencing actions. How sad these words are!

In fact, it doesn't matter, and consumers don't just bully you. In fact, the consumer is willing to let you help him form an opinion and influence his actions. As long as it is beneficial to him and saves him from self-study, he has no time to communicate with you. This is the principle of the brand, but also the mechanism of the brand. We've discussed this before:

Brand is a repeated game mechanism created by enterprises in order to win customers' repeated choices and give customers the opportunity to punish themselves.

You walk into Xibei Youmian Village, and the menu says: "Close your eyes, everything is delicious!" " This is the manipulation of expression-forming opinions-influencing actions. There is also a big icon-in the upper right corner of some food pictures-"must order", which is also a manipulation expression-forming an opinion-affecting the action. Your action is to order four dishes. Do you suggest being manipulated? If you don't "manipulate" you, the menu design won't have any influence on you. Would you like the waiter to sit down and communicate with you accurately?

Publicly reduce the cost of both parties. The mechanism of brand is not delicious. Next time you don't come, I'll try to get you to come again. Siebel tilted this mechanism to customers again-no food, no money! If you say that dish is not delicious, take it away for free, so that your risk can be directly reduced to zero.

This makes us even.

Because of people's affectation, propaganda is always associated with party self-interest and prejudice. If a person is called a "propagandist", I'm afraid he can't win the trust of others. So the word "publicity" was gradually abandoned and became public relations, advertising and promotion. Later, people didn't believe the word "advertiser" and changed it to "communication".

However, do advertisements need people to "believe"?

You do a questionnaire, and the question is:

Wang Lao Ji can prevent getting angry. Do you believe it or not?

A, believe B, don't believe it.

Try how many people will choose a and how many people will choose B.

When I cooperated with a well-known health care product company, I had a disagreement with their executives, that is, "Do consumers believe in health care products?" They said that nine years of continuous surveys showed that consumers in China did not believe in the usefulness of health care products, so health care products could not be branded. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was a questionnaire design problem:

Do you believe that health care products are useful?

A, believe B, don't believe it.

I'm afraid there are fewer people who choose "letter" than Wang Laoji. However, people are actually highly concerned about health care products, and hearsay says that everything works must be found and eaten.

This is the difference between "unconscious" and "conscious". Unconsciousness is real, and it is "to conscience". Conscience is biased, mixed with a lot of messy influence.

Let's do another survey:

Do you believe in advertisements?

A, believe B, don't believe it.

If someone fills in a letter, that's strange!

The fact is that no one can be unaffected by advertisements, and no one can form opinions and actions without relying on advertisements. This is the principle and the essence.

Back to our slogan topic, let's look at Hillary's two general elections from the perspective of slogans.

The election within the Democratic Party was eliminated by Obama for the first time. Obama has a powerful slogan: "Change! We can believe it. " The abbreviation is just one word: "change!" Change, change, is his label, and he sticks it on his forehead wherever he goes. This is propaganda, manipulating expression-forming opinions-influencing actions.

What about Hillary? When I campaigned with Obama for the first time, I really didn't remember her slogan, except that she said that Obama had only served in the Senate and had no administrative experience. This is "competition", not "propaganda"

In the second election, together with Trump, Trump's slogan was "Let America be Great Again" and Hillary's slogan was "Stronger Together". Hillary's slogan, "connotation" is too deep and contains too much content, which needs careful communication. Just like the title of a speech, you are required to listen to the whole article, and there are still many things you don't understand. Trump, on the other hand, is much simpler, manipulating expressions-forming opinions-affecting actions. America is not as strong as before. All this was ruined by Obama and Hillary. If you choose me, I can make America strong again. What Trump wants to do, he said extremely, but clearly. As for Hillary, she continued to criticize Obama. At that time, she said that Obama had only served in the Senate and had no experience. Today, she continues to say that Trump has no political experience and talks about how many national events she has participated in with President Obama.

1960, the media master and professor of the University of Toronto, McLuhan, commented on Nixon and Kennedy's campaign debate like this:

After three debates, the Toronto Globe and Mail commented:

"At present, the press tends to say that Mr. Nixon gained the upper hand in the last two debates, but he did not perform well in the first debate. Professor McLuhan, on the other hand, thinks that Mr. Nixon's voice is getting clearer and clearer, and he defends his views and principles with excessive rhetoric, which is not suitable for TV media. Mr. Kennedy's fairly clear response was a mistake, but he still showed the image of a TV hero ... Professor McLuhan thought that Mr. Kennedy was slightly ahead. "

After the dust settled, McLuhan commented:

"Any appearance that clearly shows your role and position in life is not suitable for TV media. As long as they look like teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs or more than a dozen other professions at the same time, they are all suitable for TV media. When the people who launch TV seem to be clearly classified into a certain profession-just like Mr. Nixon, TV viewers have nothing to fill. When the audience is uncomfortable with such a TV image, he will say uneasily,' There must be something wrong with this guy.' "

Hey! In these two paragraphs, replacing Nixon with Hillary and Kennedy with Trump can wait in the newspaper. This is historical experience. I didn't expect Trump to win Hillary, just as Hillary didn't expect it, and Trump didn't expect it himself. But it is Hillary's clarity that makes the audience feel that she always has problems. Propaganda should be less revealing, vivid, simple and not too deep into the play.

Recently, it was reported that Hillary was going to publish a new book, How to Lose. According to the press, Hillary experienced an election campaign of "anger, sexism, ups and downs, and a wonderful turning point" and met "an opponent who ignored all the rules", during which "Russia interfered in the election". How to fail is a personal work and a "warning story" that democracy is threatened.

Don't! Hillary should know that "don't do whatever you want, ask for more happiness." This is a propaganda story.

Obama is a propaganda genius. In the second election, everyone did not see the change he promised, and there were many questions. He shouted the slogan "Forward!" Forward! No discussion with you, no nonsense with you. When the election in Ohio was in crisis, his slogan was the most wonderful, without a word: "Ohio! I need your help! " Ohio! I need your help! This slogan is too essential, just reach for it! Ohio answered his request for help and he won Ohio.

The situation in Ohio is very important. You don't even need to give a reason, just say what you want and what you want everyone to do. Do it or not? People should think of themselves. Let others make their own judgments and decisions, don't be too involved, and communicate 360 degrees in all directions. This is also a kind of respect.

Hillary's husband Clinton is also a peerless slogan master. In the first election, he faced George H.W. Bush who had just won the Gulf War. His slogan is: "this is the economy, fool!" " Idiot! Is the economy! He made George H.W. Bush's brilliant exploits worthless, and after only one term, he was ousted by Clinton.

Clinton and Obama are both masters of propaganda. In their campaign case, what we see is the principle of propaganda-manipulating expression, forming opinions and influencing actions. Publicity is the truth of marketing communication, and we should return to the source of communication-publicity. Therefore, when someone says "PR first, advertising second", I also want to scold him: "Idiot! It is propaganda! " It's propaganda! Stupid!

Management can be said to be two issues, one is publicity and the other is credibility. Publicity is to attract guests; Honesty means doing according to our slogan, fulfilling our promises and doing our work well. Others can be ruled out by assuming invalid behavior.