Advertising in the Age of Persuasion: Building Brand America, 1941-1961

Abstract

In Advertising in the Age of Persuasion, Dawn Spring opens new territory for examining the manipulation of domestic and foreign public opinion during the Cold War. Spring exhaustively employs primary sources in her presentation of the roots of American “public diplomacy” and goes beyond the cooperative connections initially built into the nation's domestic and foreign propaganda during World War II. Spring establishes links between the members of the Advertising Council and other supporting organizations and reveals the extent of integration in the nation's public information programs. The book documents the connections between disparate programs and organizations, including private enterprises, religious organizations, and the government in pursuit of their individual and group goals. Spring solidly presents the underlying goals of and hidden relationships between the traditional government information services and private groups. She uses her organizing theme of the “branding” pursued by these organizations to show how their collective messages reinforced broad public attitudes of patriotism and support for international activism. More specifically, Spring expands the area of inquiry to include both the Brand Names Foundation and the crusading religious movements so epitomized by the Reverend Billy Graham, making clear the connections between those movements and the Central Intelligence Agency and other overseas information programs. She also highlights the efforts to conceal this domestic activity due to the limitations created by the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, which outlawed domestic propaganda programs by the government. By presenting the messages of these groups in their efforts to “brand” the American free enterprise capitalism system as an expression of God's will, Spring helps readers visualize the goals and techniques of this common promotional activity.