“The Born Loser” comic strip is Chip Sansom’s often funny take on living in a Rodney Dangerfield world in which the main character never gets any respect. Yesterday’s strip, carried in hundreds if not thousands of newspapers, is a sweetly…
“The Born Loser” comic strip is Chip Sansom’s often funny take on living in a Rodney Dangerfield world in which the main character never gets any respect. Yesterday’s strip, carried in hundreds if not thousands of newspapers, is a sweetly…
In Shakespeare’s version of the Julius Caesar story, Caesar struggles against his assassins in the Senate chambers until he sees his good friend and protégé Brutus draw his knife, at which point Caesar whimpers, “Et tu, Brute, so fall Caesar.” “Et…
The old expression, “the devil is in the details,” certainly applies to propaganda. Writers, editors, publishers, photographers, filmmakers and illustrators often will pretend to be objective in their communication while loading up the details with images, statements and facts that…
This weekend brought two classic examples of controlling the outcome by controlling what facts are selected for consideration or what options are available for action. The first example began a week ago, when The New York Times presented readers with…
Professors from Duke and Harvard recently completed a study of Americans’ knowledge of and attitudes towards the unequal distribution of wealth that has developed in the United States since about 1980. Professors Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely find that…
In its latest issue, Parade Magazine features an interview of three female celebrity chefs, Daisy Martinez, Lidia Bastianich and Paula Deen, on how to make Sunday dinner more meaningful for the family. Just in case we didn’t notice, the article…
Last Friday, I analyzed the tax proposals that the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform put in the outline of the plan it presented last week. As it turns out, I was among the first but not the only…
I’ve taken a look at the plan outline that the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released yesterday. The final plan will include a lot of details that may change my view of it, but the plan looks to me…
Yesterday, I analyzed an ad in which, by selecting the value to attach to its product, Home Depot communicates the ideological American imperative of mindless over-consumption. Let’s turn now to a print ad by American Express that tries to fit…
Most advertising, no matter what the medium, tries to attach a value beyond the inherent value of the product or service being shilled. According to standard ad theory, you do research to find out what values are of importance to…
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