Advertising war: the Project for America Voter Fund and the occupation of Iraq

Abstract

This article examines the confluence of national security and racial discourses in a 2006 advertising campaign sponsored by the Project for America Voter Fund that sought to stimulate support for the US occupation of Iraq. Situating the campaign in American foreign relations history, the article addresses the Fund's criticism of US media coverage of the Iraq war, the media and popular response to the advertisements and the broader argument of war supporters that their views as well as the good news coming out of Iraq were being suppressed. The article also explores the ways in which a perceived moral calculus concerning the value of US and Iraqi lives was marshalled to revive the crumbling morale of Americans weary of continued warfare. In doing so, it historicizes this discursive strategy, connecting it to the racial politics of past American wars and the rhetorical appeal of the domino theory, while concomitantly examining the development of its more unique features.