Difference Between Propaganda and Advertising

The difference between propaganda and advertising lies in the communicative objective. The first has a persuasive objective that does not stand out so much in the second.

We speak of propaganda as the form of communication based on the dissemination of ideas and opinions in such a way that the main objective is to achieve a certain degree of persuasion in individuals. While advertising campaigns seek to make a good or service known to a target audience, through propaganda actions they seek to disseminate information that can decisively influence behaviors to direct them towards their specific cause.

Propaganda, unlike advertising , is therefore an informative action with a greater ideological intention, regardless of whether or not it is seeking profit or profit. That is to say, most of the publicity is created by lucrative companies while the propaganda usually has its origin in the work of social groups belonging to politics, religion or society.

Propaganda tries through its media to change people's attitudes and direct their views and opinions towards the current represented in the informative action. To do this, it can be used in various ways to influence at a sentimental, ideological or conscience level.

However, the paths of advertising and propaganda are often intertwined, since both mechanisms take into account the opinions or tastes of people when creating campaigns.

Basically, the goodness of a cause is presented in a totally partial and biased way, ignoring or hiding its negative points and trying to create a certain level of empathy with the target audience. Apart from this, propaganda usually works thanks to the periodicity or repetition of propaganda actions that penetrate the receiver and the use of hyperbole or excessive exaggeration.

Propaganda has experienced several stages of greater depth, many of them due to the use that the totalitarian systems of the 20th century made of its techniques through large organizations or propaganda systems. Already at another level and thanks to the great effects it provokes in public opinion, it is used in periods of political elections.

From the latter we can extract another difference between advertising and propaganda, and that is that the latter usually has more lasting results over time. In other words, their messages penetrate more into people's behaviors, more being invited to think something or be a certain way than induced to buy a specific product.