It's a Brand New War!

Posted by Daniel McAdams at July 21, 2007 09:12 AM

For the incredibly reasonable sum of just $400,000, the RAND Corporation has figured out for the Pentagon why we are not winning in Iraq: the US military has simply not established an effective "brand identity" for the occupation!

Clinical psychologist and author of the study, Todd C. Helmus, writes that

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.

The study, titled "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation," comes to the revolutionary conclusion that "a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been 'We will help you.'"

Yeah, that "we will torture you" brand didn't sell all that well.

Oh, and they told Bush to stop making those so-called "hook 'em horns" signs all the time because to most people it's the sign of the devil.

Does all this not have a slight whiff of desperation to it? Or disconnect?