Technique: Bandwagon

"You're either with us, or against us,” appeals to an audience to join a ground swell of public opinion and activity because everybody else is joining. The "bandwagon" technique appeals to feelings of loyalty and nationalism, as well as the desire to be on the winning side. The technique tends to obscure the ethics of the activity at the expense of victory: better to belong to the winning side than be too concerned with the rightness of the means to achieve it.

The "4 out of 5 doctors recommend..." slogan uses both the bandwagon technique and the argument to authority to promote an action. (The two techniques are commonly found linked.) The bandwagon technique appeals most strongly to the group called belongers, those who make decisions because that's what everyone else is doing.

Technique: Doublespeak

Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, such as euphemisms.

Examples:

collateral damage: the killing of innocent bystanders, ecological destruction and environmental contamination.

downsize, rightsize, RIF (reduction in force): fire employees. "Downsize" at first applied to products, meaning to supply less product for the same price, e.g. 14 oz. instead of a full pound of coffee.

negative patient care outcome: death

Technique: Fear

Fear is one of the most primordial human emotions and therefore lends itself to effective use by propagandists. Fear is essentially the survival instinct kicking in: "I'd better watch out because you can harm me." Fear being fundamentally irrational, it is one of the techniques most widely used by propagandists.

Technique: Glittering Generalities

Glittering generalities are words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects, but are linked to highly valued concepts. When these words are used, they demand approval without thinking, simply because such an important concept is involved.

For example, when a person is asked to do something in 'defense of democracy' they are more likely to agree. The concept of democracy has a positive connotation to them because it is linked to a concept that they value. Words often used as glittering generalities are honor, glory, love of country, and especially in the United States, freedom.

Technique: Name-calling

Name-calling links the person or idea being attacked to a negative symbol; the propagandist hopes that the audience will reject the person or the idea on the basis of the symbol, instead of looking at the available evidence.

Examples of name calling include:

  • commie; fascist; pig; yuppie, bum; terrorist

Technique: Plain folks

By using plain folks rhetoric, speakers attempt to convince their audience that they, and their ideas, are "of the people."

Testimonial

Testimonial is the use of personal experience to convince the buyer to purchase the product. By describing the successes or failures of one’s own experience lends credibility to the pitch. " I tried doing that exactly the way you did, but it didn’t work because..." or " I followed this path and got this result..."