Bell Let’s Talk

https://www.readthemaple.com/hypocrisy-aside-bells-lets-talk-campaign-is-deeply-harmful/

https://dailyhive.com/canada/bell-lets-talk-day-reaction

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell-canada-let-s-talk-1.6708000

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/bell-lets-talk-criticism-commercials-suicide-anxiety-232641966.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMRycYFKMR9h1EJlpVYrk1OjdZwRT4qmhyCp8Sb836QF5rx2nifPzoc69q1qWxJ80VbQPFA5RRCA3ljal0_CDoQxBrDnfbr1VDqCuU1ozSruIRGrvsQdmtnVK8IyKl6ucRBfrHpgcGCy38xZllMjFyX-5E61pK49RMPZgeMA44M0

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers/74/

https://thefulcrum.ca/opinions/opinion-bell-lets-talk-about-bell-lets-talk-day/

AI as a way to detect deceptive language – ambiguity and clarity in public relations

There are different ways in which companies use strategic communication, deceptive language, and strategic bullshit throughout their public relations practices. Arizona State University students used AI machine learning to identify strategic and deceptive communication used by CEOs. The study has a main focus on fraudulent financial statements, determining that AI is 84% accurate in terms of identifying the business leaders’ deceptive language. Other statistics were also discovered through this data, such as determining that female and older CEOs use less deceptive language in their statements. This research shows how easy it is for AI to detect deceptive language, however it also serves as a way to remind people to think critically about the validity and clarity regarding the information they are examining.

Looking at public relations specifically, it is clear that many organizations and leaders use deceptive language to obtain a goal or outcome, especially within business practices. People with a lot of power and influence possess the ability to create their own narratives and sway public opinion. These people often deliberately exclude or include certain information which further support the narrative in which they are creating, it can be easy for these tactics to become deceptive or even fraudulent.

The balance and discussion between clarity and ambiguity in public relations has become a rather nuanced debate in recent years. Hoffman (2022) explains how ambiguity and clarity have become central concepts in strategic communication research. Organizations often deliberately talk broadly about their sustainability goals to avoid forms of scrutiny and use vague mission statements which allow for future change. The author further explains how the “demands for clarity and ambiguity” have stayed “largely irreconcilable in the research” (p. 286). Both sides strongly articulate their own perspectives while neglecting much of the information from the respective other side. The discussion between both sides of a possible coexistence or solution to these issues has only existed in recent years, and it is unclear whether there will ever be a bridge between those who believe in clarity and those who side with ambiguity.

[RL] 

References

Hoffjann, O. (2022). Between strategic clarity and strategic ambiguity – oscillating strategic communication. Corporate Communications, 27(2), 284–303.

https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-03-2021-0037

Kayser, A. (2023). CEOs’ deception is not fooling AI. Becker’s Hospital Review. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/ceos-deception-is-not-fooling-ai.html

Volkswagen 2015 Scandal Demonstrates the Lies and Deceit Behind Corporate Propaganda

In 2015, one of the world’s leading car manufacturers, Volkswagen, caught itself in a massive scandal. Volkswagen had been caught violating the Clean Air Act by selling “approximately 590,000 model year 2009 to 2016 diesel motor vehicles equipped with ‘defeat devices’ in the form of computer software designed to cheat on federal emissions tests” (EPA, 2023).

The interesting aspect to note about this scandal though, is that Volkswagen was in the midst of a “clean diesel” campaign, projecting an eco-friendly image, and promoting their diesel engines as environmentally friendly.

This advertisement^[1] is one example of the many “clean diesel” advertisements that were promoted during the scandal.

This incident within Volkswagen demonstrates the power of not only greenwashing, but corporate propaganda and bullshit, and the effect it can have on consumers. This company tried to promote that they were eco-friendly and use that image to get people to buy their vehicles. Beverly James completes a review of the late Alex Carey and his research on corporate propaganda. She notes the nub of Carey’s argument surrounding it is:

“In Western democratic societies, political and even economic power is vulnerable to public opinion. From time to time, the exploitative nature of capitalism becomes visible, and a large segment of the public realizes that business and industry are governed by considerations of power and profit, to the detriment of social and human concerns” (p.157)^[2].

The Volkswagen scandal is proof of the exploitative nature of capitalism being visible. The company attempted to take advantage of all of their consumers through promoting an environment friendly image, but failed miserable in the end. [B.R]

References

Social media manipulation by political actors an industrial scale problem – Oxford report

Currently, the landscape of social media and networking sites has created a space in which manipulation can be used to its full potential through the strategic application of these platforms. It is the responsibility of the Oxford Internet Institute to identify the political manipulation that occurs in more than eighty nations.  Businesses that specialize in communication and public relations are employed by political players like governments, and parties so that they can create the impression that there is support or opposition for a cause. These businesses use tactics that mix narrative persuasion with framing because their goals will be met by this. The study highlights how this is put in action, “The OII team warns the level of social media manipulation has soared, with governments and political parties spending millions on private sector ‘cyber troops’, who drown out other voices on social media. Citizen influencers are used to spread manipulated messages. These include volunteers, youth groups and civil society organisations, who support their ideologies (Oxford, 2021).” These are strategically implemented and are curating messaging that tailors to your preconceived beliefs and thoughts, causing you to continue thinking in this way by making use of the persuasive and informative aspects of strategic communication that influence the conversation. The concerns that were brought to the forefront by Moloney & McGrath who identify that people who plan and finance these dishonest efforts use strategic communication in the form of poor propaganda to push their own objectives(Moloney & McGrath, 2020). Furthermore, since institutions like these aim to only allow the viewer to see a portion of reality and hear a portion of the truth, it is important that media literacy in general and social media in particular are learned. Also, if you are knowledgeable about this topic, you will be able to recognize when these techniques are being applied, see right through them to the true story, and preserve the integrity of institutions like the political system.

References

Social media manipulation by political actors an industrial scale problem—Oxford report | University of Oxford. (2021, January 13). https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-01-13-social-media-manipulation-political-actors-industrial-scale-problem-oxford-report

Moloney, K., & McGrath, C. (2020). Rethinking Public Relations: Persuasion, Democracy and Society (3rd edition). Routledge.

Example of Corporate BS and the Bidirectional Asymmetric Model – OxyContin and Persuasive Pharmaceuticals

“The bidirectional asymmetric model aims to scientifically persuade the public; that is, those professionals who practice bidirectional asymmetric public relations use methods and techniques from the social sciences to study the attitudes and behaviors of the public, with the aim of making them accept the organization’s point of view and behaving in a way that backs up its decisions” (Xifra, 2020, p. 5). The behavioural model, bidirectional asymmetry, is a strategy that has been leveraged by corporations to use collected data from the target audience’s behaviours to create well received advertisements (EPR Staff, 2021). It is the use of behavioural data that creates the manipulative edge and advantage the bidirectional asymmetric model can offer. “The audience, in most cases, is swayed to behave in a manner that the organization wants after learning their behaviors. That makes this model imbalanced and not favourable to customers” (EPR Staff, 2021). When discussing corporate propaganda, it is critical to pay attention to how corporations could be playing to consumer emotions to skirt around an omitted truth that may influence the purchaser’s buying decision. The omission of truth and/or critical factors relates to last week’s concept on irrelevant bullshit, and how Easwaran argues that bullshit can be more dangerous than blatant lying (2023, p. 22). This concept of the bidirectional asymmetric model used for corporate marketing paired with Easwaran’s ideas that the disregard for the truth through irrelevant bullshit can be extremely dangerous, creates a sticky environment of being misled and confused in the name of corporate profit. An example that explores these complexities is OxyContin and one of their old doctor office ads.

“OxyContin’s commercial success did not depend on the merits of the drug compared with other available opioid preparations” (Van Zee, 2009, p. 221). Purdue’s marketing campaigns were crafted from the data they collected on how doctors were prescribing existing opioids, for what purposes, and what the consumption habits were (Van Zee, 2009, p. 221). Through understanding the existing patterns in the market, Purdue was able to craft advertisements like the one above. These were especially effective, knowing that the largest demographic for consistent use of OxyContin would be people with serious injuries who are recovering or have recovered and still experiencing pain. These people also typically had families and/or were the provider of the main income which would make them more willing to try new medications for possible solutions (Painkiller, 2023). Take the next step in pain relief is an encouraging and promising message for someone who is struggling with an altered standard of life because of injury or pain. This poster offers a solution through comparing the other popular over-the-counter solutions and dismissing them with weak and fragmented factual tidbits. The introduction of Oxycontin is framed to be the best most simplistic choice for pain medication through using words like easy, no risk, relief. These are words that would be attractive to a potential user who is in pain and struggling to find an effective solution. In the bidirectional asymmetric model, the methods target the prospective user by catering to their attitudes and behaviours and finding an alignment between those needs and the point of view of the company which is what Purdue was able to do so successfully. In addition, OxyContin is framed to not have the common issues the popular over-the-counter solutions have, implying that you won’t have to deal with uncomfortable or risky side effects. However, there is lack of mention of the issues OxyContin does have that the popular over-the-counter solutions do not have. The omittance of the truth and risks of OxyContin created a false euphoric glow around the pain pill that contributed to the opioid epidemic as we know it today (Feldscher, 2022). “In the US, corporations put large amounts of money into advertising and sponsorships aimed at improving the corporate image, countering ideas from opposing groups, and putting forward corporate views” (Beder, 2005, p. 2). Corporate bullshit is what Beder describes above and what we see in the OxyContin poster with their selective framing of the pain pill with the goal of creating a certain image by using the effects of the bidirectional asymmetric model. 

REFERENCES:

Beder, S. (2005). Corporate Propaganda and Global Capitalism – Selling Free Enterprise? University of Wollongong Research Online, 1–13. 

Easwaran, K. (2023). Bullshit activities. Analytic Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/phib.12328

ERP Staff. (2023, November 3). The 4 models of public relations. Everything PR News. https://everything-pr.com/the-4-models-of-public-relations/

Feldscher, K. (2022, November 28). What led to the opioid crisis-and how to fix it. Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health News. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/what-led-to-the-opioid-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/

News. Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies. (n.d.). https://alcoholstudies.rutgers.edu/the-four-sentence-letter-behind-the-rise-of-oxycontin/

Painkiller. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81095069.

Van Zee, A. (2009). The promotion and marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, public health tragedy. American Journal of Public Health, 99(2), 221–227. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2007.131714

Xifra, J. (2020). Public relations and corporate propaganda. The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda, 137–151. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526477170.n10