NYU Alumni Magazine Issue 10

politics da may appear hollow in retrospect, it typically works in the moment, write the authors,both professors at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Develop- ment.Since the dawn of advertising and modern communications, Americans have shown that they BUYER would buy whatever war their president was selling. Moran, a retired U.S. Marine who still recruits for the corps, and Secunda, an Army veteran who was a senior executive at J.Walter Thompson advertising, BEWARE felt compelled to tell this story be- cause, Moran says, “[People] buy a A NEW BOOK CONSIDERS HOW war with less attention than they PRESIDENTS USE ADVERTISING buy an automobile.”We are, after STRATEGIES TO SELL WAR all, they argue, “gunfighters” at heart—John Wayne’s DNA strands seem woven deep into our cultural by Robert Polner character.“[A]ny president selling a war has a customer base that is al- hink of war as a break- technologies and techniques of ready half sold,”they write.“A few fast cereal, a skin salesmanship. Many a White House well-chosen slogans and images will cream,or the iPhone. has used branding, media manage- complete the deal.” T Far-fetched? Not ment, and pop culture to ensure a Even the biggest skeptics have really, say Terence P. patriotic response to their military had trouble resisting the hard sell, Moran and Eugene Secunda in their adventures. McKinley transmitted say the authors, given the tools of comprehensive and timely new his messages about the war-hungry persuasion in the hands of a presi- book, Selling War to America: From penny press’s “Splendid Little War” dent.Woodrow Wilson appointed the Spanish American War to via a newfangled invention,the tele- George Creel,an investigative jour- the Global War on Terror graph; Franklin Delano Roosevelt nalist, to head the Committee on (Praeger Security Interna- had his “fireside chats”; and George Public Information, and Creel en- tional),in which they ar- W. Bush declared premature victo- listed artists to create paintings, gue that a president’s case ry on an aircraft carrier in front of a posters, popular songs, and sculp- for military intervention “Mission Accomplished” banner. tures to help make the case for the often resembles the mar- Though a president’s propagan- “Crusade for Democracy.” His keting of any product. FROM LEFT: THE GOVERNMENT ENLISTED ARTISTS TO STOKE AMERICANS’ HATRED From 1898, when William OF THE KAISER, AS SEEN IN THIS WWI POSTER; AS THE CRISIS IN INDOCHINA McKinley unleashed American sea ESCALATED, KENNEDY USED MAPS OF COMMUNIST INFILTRATION IN LAOS TO power and imperial ambition upon JUSTIFY PROSPECTIVE ACTION IN THAT COUNTRY. the islands of the Caribbean and Philippines, to the present war in Iraq, U.S. government and military leaders have turned to the latest committee organized choirs, civic Harbor, he created the Office of War protracted conflict provoked the “classic example of good marketing clubs, religious institutions, and re- Information, which influenced the antipathies of the baby boomers, killing a weak product.”While Pres- cruited 75,000 volunteers to give tone and content of hundreds of who denounced its underlying ident Bush’s persuasive arguments four-minute speeches in 5,200 Hollywood comedies, dramas, and rationale and turned against it, as for toppling Hussein marshaled communities.Though the Allies musicals to boost civilian and mili- did much of the mainstream me- strong public support,his claims that won the war, the example of the tary morale if not provide a few hours dia. It was a war characterized by the Iraqi strongman had weapons of danger of overselling a war’s poten- of escape from the realities of war. tial is evident in the failure of Wil- Patriotic songs filled the airwaves son to achieve his sweeping (“Praise the Lord and Pass the Am- “People buy a war with less “Fourteen Points” in the Versailles munition”) and even comic book attention than they buy an auto- Treaty negotiations.The unmet ob- heroes like Batman stepped up to en- jectives to spread democracy list. Meanwhile, press censorship and mobile,” says Terence P.Moran. through the crumbling empires of government regulation curbed con- old Europe led to more than two tradictory messages in the media. political manipulations and mass destruction and something to decades of public disillusionment The Korean War, say Moran and promises unfulfilled. Even the do with the terror attacks of Sep- and isolationism at home. Secunda, was by contrast the for- triggering event for the escala- tember 11, 2001, have not been The successful rallying of Ameri- gotten war, despite the fact that it tion of U.S. military actions borne out—nor have proclamations can support for entry into the First was the first major national event proved flimsy—according to of quick success. “The question is World War nonetheless became a covered by all the U.S. television many historians, two alleged at- whether Americans can act like the primer for the marketing of World networks, reaching nearly 30 mil- tacks by North Vietnamese tor- informed, enlightened, and War II, which, from a selling per- lion Americans. Harry Truman pedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin thoughtful citizens necessary for spective, was the most successful downplayed its importance, not were but invented provocations any democracy to flourish, or will American war of all time,say the au- even calling it a war (it was a “po- to win Congressional authoriza- they continue to be willing buyers thors. Initially Roosevelt had a lot of lice action”) and waited more than tion. “The Vietnam War,” they of whatever war an administration is persuading to do to reverse public three weeks after the North Kore- write, “was a textbook example selling,”the authors write.“We hope suspicion of U.S. military engage- ans invaded South Korea to go to of a war that was badly sold.” that the former is true, but fear that ments abroad. He skillfully leveraged the American people about his de- The war in Iraq, in contrast, is a the latter is more likely.” F radio, however, bringing his reassur- cision to commit troops. Holly- R O M ing, stoic attitude and faith in the wood, too, took little notice. L E F T : cause of democracy and liberty to Those years planted the seeds © L I B living-room listeners across America. for Vietnam, a war the authors R A R Y Six months after the attack on Pearl view as a marketing fiasco. The O F C O N BELOW: MILITARY OFFICIALS IN THE PERSIAN GULF WAR DAZZLED AMERICANS G R E WITH “SMART BOMBS,” WHOSE HIGH-TECH PRECISION, BROADCAST REPEATEDLY S S ; IN SATELLITE PHOTOS, PROMISED FEWER CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. RIGHT: IN A © B E MISGUIDED MEDIA STUNT, PRESIDENT BUSH APPEARED IN A FLIGHT SUIT BEFORE T T M A “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” BANNER ONLY SIX WEEKS INTO THE IRAQ WAR. A N N / C O R B I S ; © A P / S K Y N E W S ; © A P P H O T O / D E N I S P O R O Y NYU / SPRING 2008 / 31 P H O T O © B E T T M A N N / C IN O P R B I S R I N T nonfiction Sky Girls A LOOK AT THE GLAMOROUS— even breakfast in bed—were on the transformed into “I’m Going to Fly AND ACTIVIST—HISTORY OF FLIGHT forefront of labor history. Among You LikeY ou’ve Never Been Flown the first to use the Civil Rights Act Before”).Barry ends her study with ATTENDANTS of 1964 to fight sexual discrimina- weight-restriction battles that car- tion, for example, they were pio- ried into the 1990s and an aviation by Andrea Crawford neers in the air and in the courts. bill that finally, in 2003, legislated Barry’s story travels a rich histo- safety requirements for flight atten- n February 1930, a young presence would reassure passen- ry: from the first adventurous dants, certification for which they woman named Ellen Church gers—with “great psychological women flying during the Depres- had been lobbying for decades. walked into a meeting at Boe- punch,” he noted—that this new sion to the mid-century “Golden From the time Barry began re- Iing Air Transport.Trained as a mode of travel was both safe and re- Era” of flight when searching the topic nurse and a pilot, Church spectable. It would also, he predict- “well-heeled air trav- while a graduate stu- pitched an unusual idea: She sug- ed, earn his airline enormous elers enjoyed leisurely dent in history at gested that the airline hire nurses national publicity.Three months flights on roomy,well- NYU, the activism to serve passengers.At a time when later,on a 10-passenger plane flying appointed planes,” and angle intrigued her: flights were rough, air-sickness the Oakland-Cheyenne-Chicago flight attendants,as she “Just the idea that rampant, and emergency landings route, the world’s first “stewardess- writes, “could borrow these women who are far too commonplace, her medical es” took to the air. plenty of prestige from seen as genteel and expertise, she argued, would be an The great success of Church’s both customer and set- glamorous actually set asset in the air. idea is chronicled in Kathleen M. ting.”The history con- up a union in the Airlines had been ferrying pas- Barry’s Femininity in Flight:A Histo- tinues through the 1940s—it flies in the sengers along with mail and cargo ry of Flight Attendants (Duke Uni- hypersexualized late face of the stereo- since the early 1920s,and many had versity Press).

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