The 5 differences between advertising and propaganda

Two forms of persuasion widely used by organizations in politics and business.

We live in a society in which we are constantly bombarded by advertising and propaganda messages, which aim to alter our behavior and make us seek to approach products, services or ideas.

But despite being surrounded and immersed in them, the truth is that sometimes we do not grasp the nuances between the different information they are trying to sell us. For example, we often consider as synonyms the concepts of advertising and propaganda, which, despite being related, are not identical. Knowing how to distinguish between them is essential to understand the persuasive communication used by companies and organizations in general.

What are the differences between advertising and propaganda? Let's look at some of the most common ones in this article.

Advertising and propaganda: similar but different

In order to be able to establish potential differences between advertising and propaganda, it is first of all necessary to be clear about what each of these concepts, often deeply related and confused with each other, refers to.

Advertising is understood as the set of strategies strategies employed in order to disseminate or generate acceptance or attraction of a product or service, through the use of marketing communications.The use of persuasive communications that are usually aimed at generating needs and drawing attention to some kind of stimulus, product, entity or reality.

Advertising is subjective in nature and is primarily used in the commercial field, seeking to obtain a profit. However, there is also a more social type of advertising, which aims to educate or raise awareness of a worrying or little-known reality.

As far as propaganda is concerned, this can be defined as the set of strategies employed with the aim of generating a substantial change in the ideology and behavior of a person. generate a substantial change in a person's ideology and behavior through persuasive communications through persuasive communications, generally not having a profit motive and aiming to generate modifications through the manipulation of information.

Propaganda tends to have dogmatic connotations, trying to make the receiver of the information ascribe to the ideology or modify his attitudes regarding a specific subject. In spite of this, sometimes it seeks to be educational, without necessarily having a perverse intention behind it.

In both cases we are dealing with strategies that seek to generate modifications in the subject's behavior, using messages that are intended to persuade the need to follow the the need to follow the message they offer.

Both often use emotionality to achieve their objectives, and may distort the truth in order to satisfy their objectives. In fact, both advertising and propaganda often use elements of the other concept to further the achievement of their objectives. The distinction between the two is very fine and it is often difficult to find elements that separate them.

Main differences between advertising and propaganda

Although, as we have seen, the concepts of advertising and propaganda share several similarities, they are, in fact they are different concepts that present characteristics that differentiate them from each other.. Among these differences we can find the following.

1. The objective of persuasive communication

The main and most important difference between advertising and publicity can be found in their objective: advertising is mainly oriented to commercial purposes (to sell or increase consumption), while propaganda aims to modify the ideology (to sell or increase consumption), while propaganda aims to modify the ideology or thinking of the target subject, in a dogmatic way.

Advertising seeks to extract economic profit in a direct wayAdvertising seeks to extract economic profit in a direct way, or to raise awareness of a social reality without trying to change the beliefs of others, while propaganda, despite not having a profit motive, does seek to modify the cognitions and beliefs of the subject in order to align them with the ideology it proposes.

2. Themes on which they work

Advertising and propaganda also differ in the type of fields or themes on which they usually work. Ultimately, the objective of each of these forms of communication is reflected in their tendency to appeal more or less to a series of values and images.

As a general rule, advertising refers to services or consumer goods, although it may also seek to promote institutions, companies, ideas or general social realities. Propaganda, on the other hand, usually deals with topics such as beliefs or areas such as politics and religion. such as politics and religion.

Therefore, while advertising tends to try to generate pleasant sensations to associate them with what is being promoted, it is more common for advertising to appeal to negative feelings, such as fear or anger, to arouse the interest of the target and mobilize them by talking about issues such as public safety, global crises, social inequality, etc.

3. Orientation with respect to content

Another differential aspect can be found in the type of relationship that the message establishes with respect to the content, or in the relationship between the content and the objective of the communication.

As a general rule, advertising is consistent with the material or message it has and seeks acceptance and attraction towards its message. seeks to increase the approach to what it sells..

However, propaganda can either seek acceptance or ascription towards an ideology or thought or try to reject it and generate a distancing towards a way of thinking contrary to one's own.

4. Level of inclusiveness

Another possible difference between propaganda and advertising has to do with who it is aimed at.

As a general rule, propaganda is oriented to reach a very particular group, having a very delimited target with an ideology similar to that of the issuer. a very delimited target with an ideology similar to that of the sender.. Although advertising often tries to generate strategies to attract specific sectors of the population, it generally aims to act universally, seeking a much more social and community effect.

5. Level of depth in the psyche

Another major difference between the two concepts can be found in the fact that while advertising only seeks to attract attention to a certain product or idea and perhaps generate awareness of its necessity (sometimes incorporating emotional elements), propaganda is aimed at awakening, using and even modifying emotions, expectations, thoughts, beliefs and perspectives.

In this sense propaganda seeks to delve much deeper into the psyche of the subject in order to convince him to alter his ideology, whereas advertising interacts with the subject at a more superficial level..