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U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
bhaloo
11/09/01 at 09:43:13
slm U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims ftasker@herald.com Frustrated by a feeling that Osama bin Laden has been more successful than America in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Muslim world, the U.S. State Department is responding with a uniquely American solution: a Madison Avenue-style campaign to sell its point of view. On Friday, it will announce a TV and print ad campaign using in part U.S. sports stars and other celebrities. It's being designed by Charlotte Beers, new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, whose career has included running two of the country's most powerful ad agencies, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. Beers won't release details before the Friday news conference, but the plan has provoked particular interest from advertising executives, public relations specialists and experts on the Muslim world. John Schulz, professor of international communications at Boston University, thinks the ad blitz is ``an outstanding idea.'' ``Using celebrities and sports figures in much of the world adds to recognition and to the credibility of the message,'' says Schulz, who for 21 years was the bureau chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, for the Voice of America. ``I teach a course in persuasion and propaganda. And a key element in talking to people anywhere is that a message is more persuasive when they like the message sender. ``Michael Jordan right now is the most recognizable single name on the face of the globe. Even in China, kids want to be like Mike. You trust people you like.'' Certain movie stars could also be good spokespersons, Schulz says. ``Among the biggest film stars in the world are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. The most popular films come from Hollywood, and they're violent adventure films like Rocky and Rambo.'' Female celebrities could be used, he says, ``but you've got to be really careful that they represent values that do not clash with Islam.'' Madonna, Britney Spears are out, he says. Oprah Winfrey might be excellent. ``She's a minority American, internationally recognized, as modest as the day is long, and she's not associated with sex.'' Other Middle East experts, while supportive, are more wary. ``The Mideast is the most difficult area in the world in which to launch a campaign like this,'' says Geoffrey Kemp, director for regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom in Washington. ``In the rest of the world, American jazz and pop culture are extremely popular; in a lot of the Mideast they're frowned upon by the government.'' Still, Kemp believes U.S. Muslim sports stars such as basketball's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and boxing's Muhammad Ali would be well known and respected enough to be good spokesmen. Mohaiddin Mesbahi, professor of international relations at Florida International University, disagrees. ``This is a war. It's not a place where people are going to pay attention to Michael Jordan or Madonna. We need Muslims living in America, heads of mosques, heads of Islamic organizations with tens of thousands of members. ``The message has to be that this is not a war against Islam,'' says Mesbahi. ``And that the U.S. is aware of the difficulties and resentments that exist due to U.S. policies, whether inadvertent or otherwise.'' South Florida advertising and public relations executives agree that Beers faces a formidable challenge. ``I'd use an open and honest message,'' says Miami public relations exec Bruce Rubin, ``that we value things like life and liberty, and that we are reacting the way we are because of what happened on Sept. 11.'' But Rubin, who handled the public relations campaign for three big tobacco companies when they were successfully sued by Florida, warns that trying to change people's most basic attitudes is difficult. ``When I could sit down with people in the tobacco campaign, I could convince them that, if they willingly smoked, they were responsible for their actions. ``They'd say yes, but they'd still blame the tobacco companies.'' Elaine Silverstein, who, with partner Joyce Beber, ran the unsuccessful ad campaign to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida in 1982, said that campaign showed her what a daunting task Beers faces. ``For some [ERA opponents], it was a matter of core belief, and you couldn't change that in enough people.'' Silverstein said she recently saw a BBC TV panel discussion from Islamabad about the bombing in Afghanistan, in which a Pakistani engineer explained why he was demonstrating in the streets. ``He said: `It's all a Zionist plot. Everybody knows that. It's why there were no Jews in the twin towers.' ``This was a very well-educated man. Yet it was a firmly held belief. How do you change that?'' Concludes Kemp: ``This has promise, but it must be thought through carefully or it could backfire. It has to be a serious attempt over time to influence elite opinion in the Muslim world that has been poisonously influenced by a few writers and intellectuals. ``It's a matter of educating an entire generation. It must be serious, long term and focused.''

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
NewJehad
11/09/01 at 11:10:39
we need to combat this propaganda. This is not a war against Bin ladin, its a war against Islam so they will use the propagander campain to change islam beyound recognition.

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
Abid
11/10/01 at 03:08:15
Is there no difference between selling this war to Muslims and selling coke or Macdonalds? Do these guys really think that they can sell this idea to Muslims all over the world?

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
NewJehad
11/10/01 at 10:01:56
They will get their pet Muslims to help them. just like the rulers used their pet Ulimah when they are needed. And how Asad used his pets to justify killing a whole city for wanting Islamic law. It works unless we work hard at combating it.

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
Sonny
11/15/01 at 21:09:45
Hello. This is the second or third time I have tried to post a comment here~hopefully I will be lucky and will get through. I cannot keep perfectly up to date on the postings, and I regret, but am very busy. Please, please, do NOT let the media touch off all the buttons--(as in they are really pushing your buttons and hitting all the switches!)  I truely do believe that the news is as sensationalized and dramatized as hollywood can possibly make it right now.  I personally think that right now is not the time to decide who is what when viewing the news. Are you viewing actors, or newscasters? Story-tellers or the watchdog of the American public IF there is one? I have also noticed a HUGE influx of new visitors to the site, and yes, I think more people are taking an interest in Islam, and I have also heard of "agitators", so, be aware of who your friends are--and take some time to slow each other down.  I think this is the best time to watch and listen, and wait and see. It would be a great loss to US of A if all the muslims joined in "Kalifah (SP?)" and left, and the loss would be to all, on both sides of the conflict. But I encourage you to slow down, do not jump to a hasty solution, and I encourage you to be skeptical of some of the news--as my papa used to say, don't run away from the problem, but find a workable way to resolve it. I have confidence that you Can resolve your conflict within your present locality, and Allah may grant you the courage and patience to persevere. Rest well, and Godspeed.  Patti~(aka: Sonny)

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
Sonny
11/15/01 at 23:00:37
Oh, yes, p.s.:  sort of also think it wise to consider, when thinking of where you might be most needed, to think of where your contribution might make the most significant difference to others, you know--whether that's at home (wherever you are); or abroad. Although where ever that might be, my prayers continue to go with you.  Sonny.

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
Rashid
11/15/01 at 23:22:56
[slm] [quote]It would be a great loss to US of A if all the muslims joined in "Kalifah (SP?)" and left, and the loss would be to all, on both sides of the conflict.[/quote] Just one question: Why? Muslims love america, but america doesn't love Muslims.  I will give credit where it is due and admit that here we are free to practice and preach Islam better than the so-called muslim countries with their tyrant rulers.  However, I wonder if we are paying a heavy price for it.  So many youth have been lost and so many american bombs paid for with our tax dollars have been dropped. [wlm]

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
Sonny
11/16/01 at 22:07:42
Rashid~Everybody can get a little mixed up over emotional issues at times--no wonder the world can be such a confusing place. Sometimes individuals don't know quite where they stand on an issue and they just start to follow a crowd. I've been thinking about how I might best answer your thoughts, and what follows is the best I can come up with for now.  Have you ever heard the saying, "the darkest hour is just before the dawn"?  But not everyone may experience their darkest hours just that way.  Different people experience life in different ways.  It would be easier to hedge around the issue than give you my best reply--which I think will be inadequate.     The internet; the news; the arts:  they are positively brewing with emotion, speculation, heresy (hearsay?), The American culture has become a sort of bubbling, boiling stew.  Well, and most of us don't eat the stew while it's roilling on the stove--wetake it off the stove, let it cool, serve ourselves a small portion, and eat it when it has become more digestable.     Right after the events of Sept. 11th, I found myself glued to the news, the internet, the paper, the t.v., the radio...I soon found out it was like getting hammered--I really thought that even getting hammered would be lot's more fun. So I decided to take some time off to enjoy real life without the news, and I found that so comforting.  Soon I discovered that many of my American friends felt the same way about it and were turning the news off and their lives back on.  In a way, this is the best and most practical method of finding out who your friends are, and who cares for you.     I don't believe in this "Americans don't love us and don't want us here."  What I see is an unparalleled opportunity for dialogue between cultures which only requires that ijdividual people take advantage of the open door which can allow greater communication.  It's an opportunity for dawah for you, and for expressions of faith from all people.  People are really reaching out to others with a need for support and encouragement--they need you as much as you need them--and if you reach out to others, most would like to draw reassurance as well as provide it.  This is a good time for muslims, and christians alike to exhibit the noble virtues of their faith and make an effort to close the gaps, cultural and emotional, that cause us pain and lift one another up, for what healing we can share.     I cannot see into the future any better than anyone else, but, despite the recent surge of patriotism, I see people taking things slowly, who are trying to weigh the right and wrong of things and carry out justice as best they can.  What `can it accomplish for you to answer outrage with outrage?  Why frighten them with diatrabes about your tax dollars and the wrath of the emmanent Allah?  They may fear his wrath as you do! I wish the muslim community would, and I won't say they will, but they Could, display some patriotism by supporting USA in it's attempts to dislodge the more oppresive factions of Islamic government in the mid-east.  Because if they Do support the USA, they will have a far greater role in saying what it is they actually would like to see.     Do you know how kids act at the table sometimes--"Hey mom, I won't eat brocoli, I won't eat pears.  I don't like liver.  I hate carrots. I don't even like peanutbutter anymore and I don't even like the freedom to eat or not eat peanutbutter..."???  We are only more or less free here in America, and should you be one of those who like what you see going on around here, then I would hope you would find here something of value you could take home with you, or create at home when you get there.  If Americans knew what it is that you do like and do want to see there might develope a constructive feedback loop--if Americans do find out what it is that you LIKE about our country, they might provide creative, intelligent solutions as to how you go about creating YOUR OWN VERSION in your own homeland.  I think that dialogue is really the key that can unlock the terror in the world situation today.  Good luck.     As to the lost youth.  When they mature, their growth may become a blessing to your people. With new insight, fresh vitality, and a closer walk with Allah, they may bring a new vision to Islam.  Christians face the same troubled water in their own youth, and the Jews have experienced it so often they named a plant after them--the wandering Jew--nice verigated leaf, very pretty, very kosher.     Don't all of you worry too overly much--pray about it and give it back to your God.  It is in His hands.  Take some time to get back into your former routines.  Don't leave until you know what you are leaving for--is it to tear at the US or to build anew in the old country?  My heart goes out to you. These are hard choices.  But we all face some, and you (as in you, all) will do well, as you always have. Insha'Allah, he will guide you.  :)  Sonny

Re: U.S. to launch ads to influence Muslims
momineqbal
11/17/01 at 02:26:10
[slm], Very positive refreshing thoughts sister Sonny. InshaAllah we can take some good from it. These are indeed emotional times for  many around the world.  But inshaAllah we can learn from the Seerah of our Prophet (saw) and try  and  be constructive in our approach. At the very least , if we can not speak good then try and be quiet ;-). Muslims inshaAllah will be reflecting this ramadan and try to decipher what Allah wants us to do and who knows there might be a great blessing waiting for us soon ;-) Wassalam
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