What is Propaganda?

Propaganda is a form of communication organized around influence, usually by presenting information in a way that supports a cause or desired response. The term can describe messages distributed by governments, movements, institutions, campaigns, or other organized actors.

Unlike ordinary communication, it commonly relies on selection and framing: some facts receive emphasis, while competing interpretations receive little attention or are presented as unacceptable. A message does not need to be wholly fabricated to function as propaganda. A true statistic, placed beside loaded language and stripped of relevant context, can influence judgment just as effectively as an invented claim.

The word has a long history, but its modern meaning is often associated with political persuasion and manipulation. It may appear in speeches, posters, films, news reports, educational materials, advertisements, social-media posts, and visual symbols.

How Propaganda Migrated into Advertising

The popular account holds that in the 1920s, Edward Bernays applied his uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas about unconscious desires to shape public opinion. Rather than pushing dry facts, he engineered consent for products and policies by linking them to deep emotional needs and leveraging third-party authority figures (i.e., doctors, scientists, celebrities) to add a veneer of impartial endorsement.

To avoid the negative stigma of “propaganda,” Bernays called his approach “public relations.” The narrative goes that this method laid the groundwork for modern consumer behavior strategies, where brands aim to reflect identity and aspirations instead of merely selling products.

Native Advertising as Camouflaged Propaganda

One direct modern echo is native advertising where a brand or political actor pays to place content that mimics the look and feel of genuine editorial material, hoping to borrow the host outlet’s credibility.

In a 2020 survey experiment using real political advertisements from the Chinese government published in The Washington Post and The Telegraph, researchers found that respondents struggled to distinguish the advertisements from standard news stories. This confusion occurred regardless of the respondent’s level of education or media literacy.

The ads were more convincing when they appeared on and were perceived as news from an independent host, compared to content from a government-controlled outlet. Importantly, when people did detect that the content was a paid advertisement, trust in the hosting media site declined.

This mirrors the propaganda technique of disguising persuasion as impartial information, a strategy Bernays himself employed.

Narrative Advertising as Emotional Propaganda

Brands increasingly use storytelling to build emotional connections, mirroring the narrative style long used in propaganda.

An analysis of ISIS’s social media output found that the group relied heavily on a narrative advertising approach. It used stories to appeal to recruits’ emotions and desires, establishing a strong connection with its audience and increasing the group’s success in promoting its ideas. The study specifically frames ISIS’s content as a form of narrative advertising.

Bernays championed linking products to emotional desires rather than functional attributes, and modern brand storytelling is widely claimed to work the same way. Noteworthy, when a brand tells a compelling story about its origins or values, it may tap into the same psychological pathways, but the effect depends on many contextual factors.

Greenwashing as Integration Propaganda

Another tactic with direct lineage is greenwashing. This happens when a corporation creates a public image of environmental responsibility through advertising and public relations without making substantive operational changes.

An analysis of green advertising and green public relations documented numerous examples where corporate communications misled the public on issues like global warming, toxic chemicals, and environmental education. The authors concluded that Jacques Ellul’s theory of integration propaganda—where propaganda serves to integrate individuals into a system of beliefs and habits—provides a strong explanatory framework for these practices.

This aligns with the Bernaysian technique of using media to shape public perception while obscuring underlying realities, a direct import of propaganda into consumer relations. Thus, a brand can claim environmental stewardship, borrow the halo of that image, and yet continue practices that contradict the message.

The Limits of Persuasion: A Neuroscientific Reality Check

Despite the popular belief that propaganda-like marketing can easily manipulate us, psychological science offers a strong counter-narrative.

A review across psychology and social science found that humans are not strongly gullible. The evidence shows that people have well-functioning mechanisms of epistemic vigilance since they check the plausibility of messages against their background beliefs, calibrate their trust as a function of the source’s competence and benevolence, and critically evaluate arguments offered to them.

The review concluded that communication, including advertising and propaganda, is “much less influential than often believed” and generally not very effective at changing people’s minds. Beliefs that lead to costly behavior are even less likely to be accepted, and acceptance often depends on fitting preexisting beliefs.

This finding has direct implications for the historical propaganda blueprint. The Bernays-inspired fear that a cleverly crafted message can easily implant new ideas is not well supported.

Audiences are often active skeptics, which limits the practical power of camouflaged ads, emotional storytelling, and green image campaigns. When such tactics do appear to work, they likely align with existing biases rather than creating entirely new attitudes.

Ethical Guardrails for Propaganda

These historical and empirical insights translate into concrete principles for marketers who want to learn from propaganda’s methods without crossing into deception.

Radical transparency. Because Dai et al. showed that detection of an ad erodes trust in the host media site, the short-term lift from disguise isn’t worth the long-term damage. A user who realizes an article is an ad will lose trust in the brand and the publisher, potentially causing more harm than any initial conversion gain.

Substance over image. Nakajima’s study warns that integration propaganda erodes public trust when green claims lack backing. Any sustainability or social responsibility messages should reflect genuine operational practice. A marketing department cannot substitute for actual environmental stewardship, when the gap is exposed, the brand’s credibility collapses.

Respect the audience’s vigilance. Study 4 demonstrated that people evaluate source credibility and argument quality consistently. Focus on honest demonstrations of competence and benevolence rather than constructing manipulative stories. A narrative that feels inauthentic or contradictory to known facts may prompt the very epistemic vigilance that renders persuasion ineffective.

Narrative with integrity. Mercier’s study highlighted storytelling’s connective power, even in a non-commercial context. Therefore, use stories to convey real brand values, not as emotional hooks detached from truth. The claimed effectiveness of narrative advertising is still being tested, but ethical constraints do not depend on proof of efficacy. A story built on fiction risks backfiring when consumers eventually see the disconnect.

Contextual awareness. Esarey et al. found that in China, there is considerable popular support for state-guided persuasion via public service advertising, though levels vary by age, education, and gender. However, popular acceptance does not automatically make a tactic ethical for commercial brands. Ethical guardrails should be grounded in universal principles of honesty and respect, not just local opinion. What a population tolerates from its government does not justify a brand’s decision to mislead.

The Real Power of Persuasion Lies in Honesty

Edward Bernays’s rebranding of propaganda as public relations created a blueprint for modern marketing, one that still surfaces in native advertising, emotional storytelling, and green image campaigns. Yet the scientific evidence reviewed here shows that audiences are far less gullible than the folklore suggests, routinely checking messages against their own knowledge and the credibility of the source.

Deceptive tactics borrow trust, but when that borrowing is discovered, both brand and publisher suffer lasting damage. The Bernaysian playbook works only as long as the audience remains in the dark, and the available research indicates that people are active skeptics, not passive targets.

Marketers can indeed learn from propaganda’s emotional appeal and narrative structure without crossing into deception. The genuine differentiator is not the technique itself but whether the message aligns with observable reality.

Radical transparency, substantive claims, and respect for the audience’s vigilance turn borrowed credibility into earned trust. When persuasion matches truth, it respects the very epistemic mechanisms that make long-term loyalty possible.

Tired of guessing if your message is actually resonating? While propaganda tactics rely on assumed influence, true brand strength is rooted in measurable engagement.

Move beyond superficial metrics and discover how top teams use neurotechnology to gain unbiased, data-backed insights into brand recall and cognitive processing.

References

1. Dai, Y., & Luqiu, L. (2020). Camouflaged propaganda: A survey experiment on political native advertising. Research & Politics, 7(3), 2053168020935250. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168020935250

2. Kruglova, A. (2020). “I will tell you a story about Jihad”: ISIS’s propaganda and narrative advertising. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 44(2), 115-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2020.1799519

3. Nakajima, N. (2001). Green advertising and green public relations as integration propaganda. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 21(5), 334-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/027046760102100502

4. Mercier, H. (2017). How gullible are we? A review of the evidence from psychology and social science. Review of General Psychology, 21(2), 103-122. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000111

5. Esarey, A., Stockmann, D., & Zhang, J. (2017). Support for propaganda: Chinese perceptions of public service advertising. Journal of contemporary China, 26(103), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2016.1206282

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Edward Bernays transform propaganda into public relations?

Edward Bernays applied Sigmund Freud’s ideas to link products to unconscious desires, rebranding propaganda as public relations to avoid its negative stigma. This method shifted marketing from selling products to reflecting identity and aspirations.

What makes native advertising an echo of propaganda?

Native advertising mimics editorial content to borrow the host outlet’s credibility, similar to propaganda disguising persuasion as impartial information. Studies show that audiences struggle to distinguish these ads from news, and detection lowers trust in the media site.

How does narrative advertising connect to propaganda techniques?

Narrative advertising uses storytelling to appeal to emotions and build connections, mirroring propaganda’s approach of engaging desires rather than presenting dry facts. An analysis of extremist content highlights this connective power, but its effectiveness in commercial advertising has not been directly tested.

In what way is greenwashing a form of integration propaganda?

Greenwashing creates a public image of environmental care without substantive changes, aligning with integration propaganda that shapes perception to integrate individuals into beliefs. This borrows from Bernays’ technique of using media to obscure underlying realities.

Do people easily fall for advertising and propaganda claims?

Evidence shows humans have epistemic vigilance, calibrating trust based on source competence and critically evaluating arguments. Gullibility is the exception, not the rule, and persuasion is often less influential than commonly believed.

Why should marketers label paid content transparently?

Transparency is crucial because detecting ads erodes trust in both the brand and the host media site. Clearly labeling paid content prevents long-term damage from deceptive practices and maintains credibility.

How can brands use storytelling without deceiving audiences?

Brands can use stories to convey real values, not as emotional hooks detached from truth. A narrative that feels inauthentic may trigger audience skepticism, rendering persuasion ineffective.