-Caveat Lector-
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/011111/w111120.html
Bush believes hawking Uncle Ben's prepared Charlotte Beers to sell
Uncle Sam
ROBERT RUSSO
WASHINGTON (CP) - When U.S. President George W. Bush decided
something had to be done to counter America's image abroad as a
shallow and materialistic society, he decided to go for Beers.
Charlotte Beers was the most powerful woman in advertising, known for
her high-octane lifestyle, golden Rolodex and stratospheric salary.
She is now effectively Bush's minister of propaganda. The Texas-born
daughter of a cowboy has a far more elegant title of course:
undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
But the woman whose ad campaigns for Head and Shoulders dandruff
shampoo, McDonald's and Uncle Ben's rice doesn't intend to stray far
from her Madison Avenue roots while leading the effort to corrode
Osama bin Laden's popularity in the Muslim world.
"We are having people who are not our friends define America in
negative terms," Beers told foreign reporters based in Washington.
"It is time for us to re-ignite the understanding of America."
Selling Uncle Sam the same way she sold Uncle Ben's rice is fine by
her boss, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"Guess what? She got me to buy Uncle Ben's rice," Powell told some skeptical members
of Congress last week. "There is nothing wrong with getting somebody who knows how to
sell something."
Beers' challenge is to show the world that America's concept of freedom goes beyond
the Golden Arches.
She has never been one to shrink from challenges.
Beers started her career in advertising at J. Walter Thompson in Chicago.
She rose to become senior vice-president of the agency before joining a smaller
agency, Tatham Laird, as chief executive.
Beers became the first woman to chair the American Association of Advertising Agencies
in 1998 after moving to stumbling giant Ogilvy & Mather.
Her southern-belle charm has helped Beers achieve what all successful advertising
agency executives need - a close enough relationship with her clients to make her
indispensable.
She was credited with a number of major account wins, including the global IBM
advertising account.
Beers was 65 - though little about her flamboyant wardrobe brings to mind a senior
citizen - when Powell approached her earlier this year to serve as undersecretary,
despite having no diplomatic experience. The senate hel
d up her confirmation for six months, agreeing to rush it through only in the
aftermath of Sept. 11.
Her target audience is the Islamic and Arab street where students learn to hate the
United States as school children and that hatred is nourished by state-sponsored
propaganda.
Beers is undaunted. She's certain her new clients will buy her new product.
"This is the most elegant brand I've ever had to work with," Beers said. "President
Bush and Secretary Powell are embodying the brand. That's a pretty inspiring place to
start."
The brand had few takers on the streets of Arab and Muslim countries. Even after the
shattering events of Sept. 11, the United States was still managing to lose the public
relations battle to a mass murderer.
Bin Laden showed himself to be a cunning communicator after the airliner assaults.
Beers quickly put together a rapid response team to counteract bin Laden's video
messages.
Former ambassador to Syria Chris Ross was sent to appear on Al-Jazeera television to
challenge bin Laden's video in fluent Arabic. And, after months of not agreeing to go
on Egyptian television, Powell popped up on Egypt'
s Nile News Channel last week to defend the war. He was soon followed by Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"Consider the alternative, which is silence, or letting other people speak for us,"
Beers said. "So I think we have no choice."
She talks of drafting athletes, musicians and actors to remind the world that there is
more to America than imperialism and Coca-Cola, but hastens to add that the
celebrities will be used in low-key public service ads.
"It's unlikely that you're going to see anything quite as dramatic as a Coca-Cola
spot."
Hollywood has been recruited to swing American and Muslim opinion behind the war
effort. The White House convened a meeting Sunday in Hollywood with 40 studio
executives and actors to enlist their help to "communicate, ed
ucate and inspire" patriotism. Nobody uses the word propaganda, but it would seem to
amount to the same thing.
The whole notion of using the glitzy wizardry of Hollywood and Madison Avenue tactics
to eradicate foreign notions of American avarice and superficiality would seem
suspicious.
An influential London-based Arabic paper described Beers' strategy as "dangerous."
"The intervention by the U.S. and British governments in the media
services and dissemination of information to people endangers the
future of political and civil freedoms," Al-Hayat said last week.
"This step will encourage undemocratic regimes to continue to control
the press and media and justify for these regimes the continued
existence of information ministries and political propaganda
mouthpieces."
Beers rejects the accusation that she is spinning or selling
anything. The United States has failed to promote its values of
freedom and tolerance, she insisted. That failure allowed bin Laden
to score points overseas. She's not about to let that happen again.
"I'm not as awed by the bin Laden propaganda machine as the world is
at this point."
© The Canadian Press, 2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
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The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
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of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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--- Ernest Hemingway
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