Memetic Warfare Archive

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TESTIMONIALS

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Famous people who tell us how much they like a product or a politician represent testimonials. The propagandist hopes that your feelings about the famous person will transfer to the product or cause he or she endorses.

Nowadays a very classic persuasive communication in advertising is based on the Testimonial technique. A well-known celebrity or famous people is telling us why we should buy this product and what are his features. Famous people who tell us how much they like a product or a politician. The propagandist hopes that your feelings about the famous person will transfer to the product or cause he or she endorses.

Talking about propaganda, there are a lot of testimonials examples such as Leonardo di Caprio for the Climate Change protest, refugees that testify about atrocities committed by the government in their homeland. In each case, we cannot tell whether the people giving the testimony are actually reliable sources of information and further, we do not know for certain what the goal of the source is; they might be dupes of one government.

[IMG BELOW] By choosing the right testimonial is possible to reach new audiences: Trump gained a huge army of trolls by choosing Pepe the Frog as a testimonial, just like Santa Claus in this WWII propaganda poster, universally known as a benign icon.

See other propaganda techniques:
ASSERTION ◊ BANDWAGON ◊ CARD STACKING ◊ GLITTERING GENERALITIES ◊ FALSE DILEMMA ◊ THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS ◊ NAME CALLING ◊ PINPOINTING THE ENEMY ◊ PLAIN FOLKS ◊ TESTIMONIALS ◊ TRANSFER ◊ DESIRES AND FEARS