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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Title: Stay F---! | 10 August

Posted at:

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/index.html

------

Anyone remember how, after September 11, everyone in the news media seemed to be touting the line that irony is dead?

Ok, well, maybe you don't, and maybe you also don't remember the series of Advertising Council public service announcements (PSAs) that launched just before Independence Day, in July 2002. So I'll refresh your memory.

The PSAs portrayed short vignettes all geared to inspire pride in America, with the theme: "Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it." One spot, called "Library," (http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_library_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil)  featured a young man who goes up to a library info desk and inquires about books that appear to be missing. "Those are no longer available," the librarian replies, then plies him for his name. When he declines to give it and turns to leave, scary secret-service types mysteriously appear, and we fade in to the 1984-ish clincher: "What if America Wasn't America?"

I was reminded of the America That Wasn't when I came across a press release by the American Library Association last week, via BoingBoing.net:

> > Ashcroft
> orders public libraries to destroy law books
> >
> > The Justice
> Department is ordering public libraries to destroy
> certain
> > books it has
> deemed not "appropriate for external
> use."
> >
> > The Department
> of Justice has called for these five public
> documents,
> > two of which are
> texts of federal statutes, to be removed from
> depository
> > libraries and
> destroyed, making their content available only to
> those
> > with access to a
> law office or law library.
> >
> > The topics
> addressed in the named documents include information on
> how
> > citizens can
> retrieve items that may have been confiscated by
> the
> > government
> during an investigation. The documents to be removed
> and
> > destroyed
> include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select
> Criminal
> > Forfeiture
> Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset
> forfeiture
> > and money
> laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture
> Reform
> > Act of 2000
> (CAFRA).
>

This is just more evidence that Ad Council's embarrassing attempt to promote patriotism praised the government for NOT doing exactly what it WAS and still is doing -- restricting citizens' basic civil rights. In fact, looking back at the other spots in the "Freedom" campaign, it is all but impossible to deny that the fictional "Big Brother" portrayed in the spots is precisely the America we've inherited under Bush.

>

 :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "LIBRARY" ::::::

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_church_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

> The key
> fiction: The American government doesn't monitor libraries and
> arrest people based on what they read.
>
> The
> reality: San Francisco Chronicle: Santa Cruz libraries warn
> patrons that the government may monitor borrowing practices.
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/MN14634.DTL
> CBS News:
> Statistics on how many libraries the FBI has contacted since the
> Patriot Act went into effect.
> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/21/national/main554924.shtml
>

 :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "CHURCH" ::::::

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_church_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

> The key
> fiction: America isn't a place where people have to hold their
> religious services in secret.
>
> The
> reality: Working for Change: After a Saudi man creates a
> website for the Islamic Assembly of North America and links to other
> Muslim sites, he is arrested by the FBI and charged with "three
> counts of terrorism, four counts of making false statements, and seven
> counts of visa fraud."
> http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17139
>
> Associated
> Press: Americans attack Muslims, post-9/11.
> http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-09092003-155967.html

 :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "DINER"  ::::::

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_diner_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

> The key
> fiction: In America, people don't have to worry about criticizing
> the government
>
> The
> reality: San Francisco Chronicle: The FBI investigates a
> man after fellow gym members report him for critizing Bush and the
> U.S. government
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2001/12/18/eguillermo.DTL
>
> Popular
> Mechanics: The U.S. Government is developing new technolgies to
> spy on its citizens
> http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/1/spying_on_us
>

 :::::: AD COUNCIL SPOT, "ARREST"  ::::::

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_arrest_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

> The key
> fiction: American are free to read whatever they like, without
> government interference
>
> The
> reality: Peaceredding.org: Army officials question the
> mother of a peace activist, who was seen wearing a t-shirt that read:
> 'Unfuck the world' on the front, and 'Dethrone the Bushes' on the
> back.
> http://www.peaceredding.org/Army%20Questions%20Spearhead%20Mom.htm
>
> City Paper:
> Security at Philadelphia International Airport refuse to let a man fly
> after he is spotted carrying the book Hayduke Lives! by the radical
> environmental activist Edward Abbey.
> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/news.godfrey.shtml
>

The irony here is so sharp, it's painful. You can almost imagine the ACLU producing the very same spots to CRITICIZE our government... so it's no wonder that this first round of "Freedom" PSAs wasn't around for long. The Ad Council continues to promote its Campaign for Freedom ( http://www.explorefreedomusa.org/hear/index.html ), to be sure, but these days the PSAs have take a decidedly different approach. Gone are the scary portraits of an over-reaching government, which must have too closely resembled the real-life scenarios made possible by the PATRIOT ACT. Now, instead of portraying the threat of a sinister government, the Ad Council characterizes the threat as one of clueless, couch-potato Americans.

"Youth," "Ummmm," and "Deaf Ears" are all pretty much the same: faux-documentary-style clips of Americans naming issues they care about -- segregation, racism, homelessness -- while saying they are "not really doing anything." Or "I get angry about it, but in my own apartment." http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/campaign_for_freedom

The one actor who does hint at a real social critique -- a woman who says, "I don't vote. I refuse to vote..." -- is cut off before she finishes the sentence.

The spots, one could argue, contain more than a germ of truth. (I'm often frustrated by the political apathies of friends or family.) But it is difficult to take homilies like "The first step toward making a difference is believing that we can," from the Advertising Council, which is essentially a front group for the mutual interests of multinational advertising agencies and the US government. The glossing-over of the public's legitimate frustrations with our government makes me want to punch someone. Hard.

It gets worse. A radio ad, "The Biggest Threat," features an African-American man informing us of the following:

The biggest threat to freedom isn't the next corporation involved in a scandal. It's not covert government operations, or even politicians. The most immediate, persistent, avoidable threat to your freedom is you.

The only good thing about these PSAs is that they're so badly executed, it's hard to imagine them having much of an impact. While they may inspire some of us to swear and throw things, many people will simply find them pointless.

If you are politically active at all, you know what happens when real, everyday, concerned people try to do good in America: they are silenced, harassed, spied on, and portrayed by the media as window-breaking, SUV-exploding lunatics. Michael Moore did a fine job portraying what happens when an honest, anti-war group tries to organize in Fahrenheit 9/11, but I've seen this happen to people I know personally.

After September 11, the FBI listed Reclaim the Streets (RTS), an activist group here in New York, on its website as an example of a "left-wing terrorist" organization--a ludicrous claim.

That the Advertising Council and its in-house Bushies dare to point the finger at us -- us! -- is but another sign of the unbearable, reality-defying hypocrisy that makes citizens feel defeated and powerless in the first place. With it's grossly misleading rhetoric, the Ad Council is itself the Big Brother it portrayed two years ago.

And to think that September 11 was once thought to be the death of irony -- now THAT's ironic!

-- Carrie McLaren