The United States is mulling a new strategy to buck the nagging PR problems that come with prolonged bombing campaigns: advertising, possibly on the controversial Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera.
Ever since television screens worldwide began to fill with footage of exploding US bombs and city streets scorched by anti-American protests, the US State Department has been brainstorming a media campaign to “reignite the understanding of America,” Charlotte Beers, US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, recently told Ad Age.
Among the ideas being floated by Beers is advertising on Al Jazeera, according to the report in the advertising industry journal.
Beers, the former chairman of WPP Group's J. Walter Thompson Co., is determined to communicate the messages that America is not fighting Islam, that alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden misstates the Quran, and that the US is working to provide humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
"I will choose any channel of distribution, any format that will get the job done," she told Ad Age, adding that speeches, media interviews, advertising and a more direct approach - building radio stations to beam programs toward target populations - were among the options under investigation.
But the choice of Al Jazeera as a medium could turn out to be an odd one, since the network has of late served as the sole forum for US Public Enemy No. 1, bin Laden, who stands accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Al Jazeera television network gained immediate recognition throughout the Western world on October 7, according to the Chile-based Terra Network, with their transmission of an “ominous and threatening” discourse by bin Laden.
“As their satellite and internet transmissions have recently demonstrated, contrary to what was true during the Gulf War, CNN is no longer one-stop shopping for those who want to stay informed,” reported Terra, which arranged an exclusive interview with the producer of the Qatar-based channel.
“We are the only network with the capacity to transmit directly from Kabul, that is the only reason why we are the only television network transmitting these images,” Ehmed Shouly told Terra. “These images are not censored, although we try to show both sides of the conflict: Washington and Kabul.”
According to Terra’s report, Al Jazeera was founded in 1996 and is currently the “most important and influential news source in the Arab World.” The satellite channel started out wielding great influence on the BBC in London, since much of its staff was hired from the now defunct BBC Arabic News service.
Bush and bin Laden competing for airtime on Al Jazeera certainly promises a media spectacle. But are Beers and her subordinates equipped to win Muslim hearts and minds with an ad campaign?
"We are talking about religion with all its connotations and emotional aspects,” Beers told Ad Age. “We are forced into a dialogue of great emotional context and where people discuss their religion, aspects of purity, [and] they accuse us of goals and beliefs that we haven't even heard of in our lifetime." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
