Interestingly enough and despite the length and drawn-out nature of the 2008 presidential campaign, today was the first time I had seen an image such as this (this is a photo from the internet, whereas I saw a bumper sticker sticker somewhere on campus). This definitely qualifies as propaganda, but what's so interesting to me is how it managed to say something significant, yet nothing at all. The assumption here is that many people would be voting for Obama based on race, and therefore could be swayed by the knowledge that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, in fact, a Republican. It's a simple message, but strong. I cannot know how effective this campaign has been, if at all, but it seems that it would be powerful in its target group, those voting Democrat based solely on race. However, the major drawback of this campaign is that it's target group is most likely very small. Various polls throughout the campaign have shown overwhelmingly that race was not the issue in this campaign, which makes any propaganda campaign that assumes it is an issue ultimately ineffective.

This particular campaign can only survive off of the hope that the average member of the target audience will neglect to use their critical thinking skills, as even simple scrutiny reveals major fallacies in the reasoning. I could go on about how the campaign makes unfounded assumptions about race and party affiliation, about how it's a red herring distracting from the real issues of the nation, but as we've learned, propaganda is not about sound reasoning and intelligent discussion. Propaganda is about getting an idea into the public fast and appealing to the emotions and more basic sensibilities (or lack thereof) of the intended audience.