How the PR Machine gets you to accept higher Gas prices

Back in college I majored in Advertising. The Public Relations major students were in all of my classes as well. The only difference between the two majors was 3 classes in our senior yr so I had a decent grasp about PR.

I still recall my first PR course. The professor asked us what we thought PR was about. When my turn came I blurted out "Propaganda" lol. He got angry and asked me for some examples of what I thought were propaganda. I said "how about that phony kiss Al Gore laid on his wife on TV in response to the critics that Gore was robot-like" (2000 election campaign) Needless to say, the semester was a long one.

Public Relations in its modern form was a creation of the Robber Barons. It existed before that but it was the Rockefeller grants that got it into the University system. It was later exported to Germany in the late 1920's and used extensively to brainwash the masses.

Using PR, the germans were able to convince the masses that the Jews were to blame for high unemployment rates and inflation.

Its been used to manipulate the masses into accepting drug laws. A complicit media would spin tales of african americans assaulting women while on a lust-induced coc aine binge.

And now its being used to get us to accept higher gas prices. Does anyone even remember what the cost of a gallon of gasoline was 3 years ago ? It was $1.50 a gallon. Today its surpassing $4 a gallon. Why are there no riots in the streets ? Simple, PR has convinced your mind to accept.

If you look at msn.com right now, front article says " What if Gas costs $10 a gallon ?" And below that it says "Why $4 a gallon is a good deal"
Here is a link to one section of the article...

articles.moneycentral.msn.com...

You'll notice how the article tries to convince the reader that $4 isnt so bad. Combine that with the title article where $10 a gallon is literally threatened and the sheepish masses are happy to pay "only" $4

This is classic PR manipulation at its finest form. This is how the elite work to get the masses to accept increasingly more control of everything.

And the sad part is, 95% of the masses will read this article and be completely unaware that its purpose is more than to inform us.

People cant wake up as we conspiracy buffs often call for if the masses dont know theyre asleep.

Lets see if I get this right ...

Gas prices around the world, especially in European countries, is far more than Americans pay. Therefore, in comparison, $4 a gallon is cheap.

Both statements are true. Gas prices in much of the world are higher than in the U.S. therefore gas prices in the U.S. are cheaper than much of the world.

How is presenting facts about gas prices in other parts of the world getting the masses to accept increasing more control of everything?

*'d and flagged my friend. This is a great topic and conversation starter.

To further add to your observations, notice how this morning it's being pushed by all the mainstream media outlets how "the US is going to sue OPEC" blah blah.
This, of course will do NOTHING to lower prices. It will, however, push some of the blame away from our gov't so nobody can say "why didn't they do anything!". Typical CYA-PR (if I can coin an acronym)

Also notice how Gore (your mention of him above makes me use him as a reference) has been largely silent on the whole bio-fuel/environmental issues topic. I'm referring to where the production of bio-fuel using coal-fired processing plants creates as much/more pollution than a petroleum refinery creates to make the same amount of fuel.
...enough rambling. Back to lunch.

Thanks again for the topic!

[edit on 21-5-2008 by TXRabbit]

Originally posted by Coshy
Lets see if I get this right ...

Gas prices around the world, especially in European countries, is far more than Americans pay. Therefore, in comparison, $4 a gallon is cheap.

Both statements are true. Gas prices in much of the world are higher than in the U.S. therefore gas prices in the U.S. are cheaper than much of the world.

How is presenting facts about gas prices in other parts of the world getting the masses to accept increasing more control of everything?

Its how its presented.

First, they scare the reader into thinking "oh dang, gas is going to be $10 a gallon !"

This creates the thought in the reader that maybe $4 a gallon isnt so bad now that I realize it could go much much higher.

Finally, another related article states that indeed $4 is a great price because other nations pay more.

The reader forgets that he used to pay $1.50 a gallon. He feels relieved to be only paying $4 a gallon. The peasants have been appeased, another revolution diverted.

Its just a form of mental conditioning PR professionals have used for years. Once you understand the science behind Public Relations, you'll easily be able to pick out things you see as a form of mental manipulation.

I used the Al Gore example above but I'll go into more details...

During the 2000 Presidental campaign Al Gore had an image problem. He was seen as sorta a nerdy cold-feeling type. He was often mimicked by Saturday Night Live show as this unfeeling idiot type.

To counter this image, a team of PR officials working for Al Gore's campaign went to work. It was decided he needs to show more public affection for his wife. That will squelch those negative images theyre thinking. Unfortunately it went badly because someone forgot to tell Mrs. Gore to expect a big wet kiss on stage during a rally. She looked stunned as the awkward Mr. Gore dipped her and laid a wet one for several seconds.

If people understood how many things they saw or read were studied, analyzed, researched, tested, etc before released for public consumption they would be shocked and disgusted. Almost nothing is left to chance these days.

Go google search video clips of president address and other speeches. Look for out-take clips, bloopers, etc. Its rather shocking to see the President making faces, laughing, joking, etc then a second later when taping begins he is The President and here is my message.

This is the root core problem we face. Not only are we being manipulated into how to think and believe, the problem is we dont even know its happening.

@admriker444
first off, i don't think 4 dollars a gallon ( 1e50/liter over here in Europe ) is a bargain ... but ... considering the current high oil prices justifyable. imho, you have got 2 choices:
[start sarcasme] start another war [end sarcasme] or accept it. these prices are real as far as I'm concerned, and when taking into account that the chinese are producing more and more of the worthless unnecesary junk we buy a lot cheaper than we can produce ourselfs, this price WILL rise and as it does so will the gasoline price.

When you say the PR machine is manipulating the people into buying their
message and accepting their prices, I think you are right, they are. Is this a good thing ? Yes, I think so, but if personal gain or a higher motive is their motivation is really a good question. But I say .... let em. It might, purposly or not have a good effect. namley that people really NEED to pay these prices for gas and oil.

If gasoline/oil prices were to stay low, who would want to invest and put their money into the more expensive renewables?
I know I wouldnt! So therefore I think 4 dollars might not be so bad after all, considering the new posiblities it opens up, and the end price we will eventually end up paying for it, around perhaps 10 dollars/gallon at about an oil price of 200 dollar or more.

I completely agree with this.

I cant stand to watch the bbc over here in the UK.

Another clever thing that the UK government did over here before my time was change to the decimal system, they said this was just to make it easier to work out the price of things etc but coming back to the subject of fuels they changed the measurement to litres instead of gallons. The result is now that we pay approx £1.30 per litre which works out at £5.91 per gallon.

THAT WOULD BE AN ASTONISHING $11.81 USD per gallon!!!!!!!!!

Is it just mean or am I being ripped off senseless?????



[edit on 21-5-2008 by XXXN3O]

[edit on 21-5-2008 by XXXN3O]

Now there are articles appearing that claim $15 a gallon is a possibility. They are going to keep "shocking" us with even more outrageous numbers. That $4 price seems cheap now.

What a lot of people forget is that countries that pay much higher prices for fuel also have access to mass transportation. Here in my suburb we have no mass transport. We have "the jo" a bus that runs 4 times a day from a street near my apartment to downtown. That's it. I don't work downtown, I work 10 minutes away, but have no mass transit I can take to get to this job and cannot ride a bike because it's all highway with massive construction and no shoulders to ride a bike on, plus I take my kids to childcare before work.

I wouldn't care if gas was a 100 dollars a gallon if I had access to mass transit and only had to drive my car to the grocery store and take my kids to daycare.

I'm sorry I just don't feel sorry for people who pay higher than we do in other countries since they have ALTERNATIVES to driving whereas most of the US does not.