I'll cheerfully wield the red hot iron if I can get two volunteers to pin them down and one to yank their trousers off.

That's pretty good.

How about "We are trying to help you, please help us do that"?

(Brand's work both ways, of course. They send a message to consumers, sure, but also they (really, corny as it sounds) help set a tone within the branded firm.)

-t

with apologies to K. Marx

"Opium is the religion of the people. Let's 'congregate' in Afghanistan."

Nah. Too complicated.

Working on it.

(Note to self: Ask Dasht for help. He's a natural born sloganeer.)

"rape is Right Out!"
"but we're not bombing your town!"
"just shut up and give us the oil"

this war sure proves that "dying is easy, but comedy is hard."

“We have trained them there to fight us here.”

Source

Wouldn't "let us help you" be better. Wouldn't it give a person more of a sense of empowerment and choice? "We will help you" sounds too much like a statement than a offer of help.

What did Reagan say about the government coming to help you?

I can only imagine the Iraqis laughing themselves sick at the idea the military is there to help them.

I recall seeing coverage of a 'focus group' on the News Hour, and was surprised at how inane the people in it were.

Regardless, it seems that the Army (and whatnot) would gain a whole lot of public favor if, the activities in Afghanistan and Iraq had clear easily understood, measurable and achievable military objectives.

I hear the anti-war slogan 'Support our troops, bring them home!', and I keep thinking, why isn't anybody saying, 'support our troops, give them clear objectives!'

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I cringe whenever someone says 'the mission in Iraq', because there isn't one. The platitudes about things being better in Iraq aren't really backed up by anything testable.

U.S. Needs to Devise a Different 'Brand' to Win Over the Iraqi People, Study Advises

Washington Post, By Karen DeYoung, July 21

In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its "show of force" brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.

The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves "shaping" both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.

Helmus and his co-authors concluded that the "force" brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies' competing brands. While not abandoning the more aggressive elements of warfare, the report suggested, a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been "We will help you." That is what President Bush's new Iraq strategy is striving for as it focuses on establishing a protective U.S. troop presence in Baghdad neighborhoods, training Iraq's security forces, and encouraging the central and local governments to take the lead in making things better.

Many of the study's conclusions may seem as obvious as they are hard to implement amid combat operations and terrorist attacks, and Helmus acknowledged that it could be too late for extensive rebranding of the U.S. effort in Iraq. But Duane Schattle, whose urban operations office at the Joint Forces Command ordered the study, said that "cities are the battlegrounds of the future" and what has happened in Baghdad provides lessons for the future. "This isn't just about going in and blowing things up," Schattle said. "This is about working in a very complex environment."

In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become "collateral damage" in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English. Cultural connections -- seeking out the local head man when entering a neighborhood, looking someone in the eye when offering a friendly wave -- are key.

McClatchy, By Dion Nissenbaum, July 27

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — If you think of the Gaza Strip as a volatile, violent battleground run by fanatic Islamist militants bent on destroying Israel, Hamas wants you to think again.

Think: "Safe, clean and green."

One month after seizing the Gaza Strip in a military rout that shattered brittle Palestinian unity, Hamas is embarking on a radical marketing campaign to promote what it calls "the new face of Gaza."

They call it the "Gaza Riviera."

Lime-green Hamas banners flutter over Gaza City with a message in English for aid workers and journalists worried about being kidnapped: "No more threat for our foreign visitors and guests."