Eight thousand A Day

I know it's hard to think in terms of concepts.

It's much easier to flick on the tv and passively watch video footage of the latest Iraq war atrocity.

You ought to ask yourself - why are the tv news shows supporting the vile terrorists who have filmed their work? Why do millions of viewers tune in, allow themselves to get brainwashed and then get impassioned about the latest barbarity, which proves to them that the Iraq war is not being waged successfully.

Main stream media has figured out that filmed images supplied by terrorists are more mentally stimulating than verbal reports of...I'll tell you in a minute.

What happens is blood pressure goes up, brain synapses fire more actively and a few tv commercials are watched in a heightened state of awareness.

This isn't Advertising 101 because we don't talk about it much in advertising.

Recent research is being quoted in the latest edition of Campaign magazine and I realised the underlying strength of the findings - stimulated brains watch tv ads more keenly.

" 'X' has completed a neuro-marketing study that monitored the brains of tv viewers while they watched ads. 'X' said the survey demonstrates that ads scheduled to appear around relevant programmes are 24% more likely to stimulate activity in the parts of the brain linked to advertising effectiveness."

p.10 UK Campaign Magazine, 25 November 2005

One of the ways to judge research findings is if you then say to yourself "well, doesn't that make sense".

The defining image of the 'War on Terror', for me, will not be one of the dramatic still photos of a plane hitting a twin tower. That day a conference of top photographers was taking place there, so it's no wonder there are so many stunning photographs. New York is an important media centre heaving with amazing creative talent and the latest film equipment so it's obvious why we have dramatic film images from September 11th. Those images support the change in attitudes that have followed.

The image that rocks my world is imbued with humanity and heartbreak. Seeing it started me down this road, writing my opinions and posting them on the world wide web. I've imagined the actions before and after the photograph was taken many times. It runs like a movie in my head. Taken by a fledgling photographer, it cuts through the noise and smoke and mirrors of the main stream media's manipulation of my brain cells and provides me with strength and courage.

www.michaelyon.blogspot.com

Click that and you come to the photograph of baby Farah, it's right on Michael Yon's main page these days, rightly so. Just as Anne Frank has come to represent the horror of the Nazis systematically killing children in the gas chambers, little Farah represents to me the horror of letting cruel media images shape my understanding of what is going on in Iraq and the Islamofascist world.

She will not be allowed to grow up. She was torn apart by the shrapnel cynically added to the bomb set off by a brainwashed suicide murderer. She did not die gently in the arms of her mother but she did die in the arms of someone who loved her and is willing to fight to the death to stop what happened to her happening to other toddlers.

The meaning of life? We're here for the kids. Everything else is just icing on the cake

8,000 a day? The number of 5, 6, 7 year old girls who's genitals are mutilated EVERY DAY, because of medieval religious beliefs. A conference was held last Friday, supported by UNICEF, read the whole thing here.

There's no compelling video footage of that kind of thing and thank goodness. You have to THINK instead. Ask yourself, what else does the media get wrong, in terms of emphasis, in terms of time devoted to a subject. In terms of free advertising for terrorists. In terms of brain excitement rather than public service news reporting.

Yes, bit of a theme of mine I know.

Pushback!

The Pushback blogger of the day is Linked in USAF. It's early morning this side of the pond so that contribution won't be up for a little while. I'll update with a link.

Pushback Update:

Here are a few edited highlights from today's pushback post by Linked in USAF, read the whole thing here:

"OPTIMISM is almost non-existent in the MSM OSM LAME PMM (Prevaricating Media Machine)....we must lead by example and fight with the greatest power in the universe: optimism."

"...great orators spoke in positives, brimming with optimism, and promoting a vision that everyone can understand. If I say the following names, do you associate pacifism, derision, or pessimism with these names:

Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
George S. Patton
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bernard Montgomery
Henry Kissinger
Kelly Johnson
Margaret Thatcher
Ronald Reagan

The true measure of a leader is their ability to drive optimism to the core and never take their eye off the ball."

To that list I would add:

Queen Elizabeth the First
John Adams
Paul Revere
Tony Blair

I'm not so sure about Monty and Kissinger, but I'm willing to be persuaded with a good argument.

Do follow the link and go have a read. There are some great lines that made me laugh out loud. You know, I had a Barbie, all those tiny outfits were wild and her black tulle dress was my favourite.