Propaganda of the Past and Present

                According to the definition provided by Webster dictionary, propaganda is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” In history, most particularly during wartime, propaganda was used in order to persuade people to do something that might sometimes be contradictory to their principles. In instances such as World War I, the British were using posters such as ones about defending British womanhood to persuade people to enlist in the war. Due to the heavy causalities sustained by the Allies during the war, they decided to use propaganda to institute nationalistic fervor in order for the citizens to continue their support for the war and fighting in it. In addition, the United States made posters such as the one with a little girl asking her father what he did during the “Great War.” Consequently, Americans decided to travel across the Atlantic Ocean and participate in an European war that does not entirely involve the Americans except for the 100 American citizens on the British ship, Lusitania that were killed by a German submarine. Some people might not even care about those 100 American citizens, it was against their principles, or religion to take up arms and kill another person but propaganda persuaded them that they are fighting for a justified cause so they fought.     

                Contrastingly, in 2011, propaganda is used in other situations due to the lack of major wars. In the case of McDonald and other fast food restaurants, they post advertisements on Television and on the internet about how their food is the best plus how their customers are enjoying every bite of it. Even though those foods might taste delicious according to personal experience, the ads do not state the health implications such as diabetes and high blood pressure/cholesterol plus other problems that the foods might cause as long as people are persuaded to buy it. In my opinion, these advertisements and many other ones selling different products to consumers are different kinds of propaganda. In advertisements, the companies always want to state the positive facts about their products while also hiding the negative effects at the same time.  Consequently, people would want to buy the products without knowing the entire truth about the product’s usage and effects so while the companies profited from the sales, the consumers are left in doubt or anger after using the products. Although, propaganda is useful only in the view of the individuals profiting from it but without them, how can mass amounts of people ever stand united for a common goal. Even if most of the time they are iniquitous, good things do happen because of them such as in the opposite meaning of this quote “The greatest harm can result from the best intentions,” which can be translated as “The greatest benefit can result from the worst intentions.”