Presto Vivace's Journal: Rand Corporation tells Pentagon to re-brand the Iraq War

Jeffrey Feldman reports that the Pentagon has ordered a report to help with "marketing" the Iraq war.

As more Americans called for an end to the U.S. occupation, the Pentagon secretly ordered a report on ways to extend it long long into the future with the help of "Madison Avenue" marketing techniques--the same techniques used to sell breakfast cereal and hardware products to the American public.

In PR this is known as telling the client what they want to hear.

Client's pissed

[yusing]

The client doesn't want to hear it: the client is tired of the body count, the lies, and knows he can't afford it.

This is "selling snake oil".

We're there for oil ... in the midst of global warming ... while the rest of the world is going solar and wind. Last gasp of falling empire (check the dollar).

Re:

[Ohreally_factor]

You're misdefining client. We're the customer. The client in this case is the Pentagon, a division of the Bush Administration. Rebranding the war might work in different circumstances, but the root cause of the problem is the administration brand itself. Bush needs rebranding. However, at this late date I doubt such a strategy would work: Consumers are not likely to buy anything from the Bush Administration while they await the release of a new product in November, 2008. Unfortunately for the American Citiz

Re:

[Presto Vivace]

From the article:
Can the same techniques used to sell corn flakes, ketchup and power drills be used to sell the Iraq policy to the public and extend the U.S. occupation long into the future?
Not if the corn flakes and ketchup have poisoned thousands of people, not if the power drills malfunction and electrocute people. There is a limit to what PR can do for a project. At some point the facts assert themselves.
PR is about presenting the client's message, if reality doesn't back up the message, there isn

This is actually a good and interesting read!

[Ohreally_factor]

I was ready to come back with something funny involving Ronald Reagan, ketchup, and DOW Chemical, but I just had to follow the link to the article. Sooooo. . . .

I just read parts of the actual report. Pretty interesting. I think you and Feldman have mischaracterized it; although I don't belittle your intentions I think you've made a mistake on what this is really about. It's an exploration and elaboration of the concept of Netwar, which is fundamental to 4th Generation Warfare doctrine. Branding is just a s