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for hearts and minds
PR effort to win U.S. support in the Arab world
By Carl Bialik
In Afghanistan the U.S. may indeed be facing the most difficult war in its history, confronted as it is by an elusive enemy whose leaders seem to evaporate and then reappear at will.
But the U.S. is fighting another war on a very different front, and this war may be even more challenging.
It is a war of words.
It must sell the Afghanistan effort to the American people, and keep selling it, but it is also mounting a multi-pronged marketing campaign for the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia.
It is pitching a complicated product--America--to people who mostly range from cautiously supportive to hostile.
The offensive of words will be conducted on all fronts--over the air, on paper, and from the sky--and it will feature a slew of spokespeople and messages.
But analysts say the U.S. faces formidable challenges in getting the words to the intended audience. Some are tactical and technological.
Others are less tangible and less easy to conquer.
Some see the entire effort as being at risk of turning into little more than a feel-good exercise on the part of the U.S.
There is also the worry that, if poorly executed, the effort could backfire, worsening the image of the U.S. in that part of the world.
Some believe that the only way the U.S. can change public opinion in the Arab and Muslim world is to revamp its entire foreign policy.
Charlotte Beers, who has headed three of this country’s biggest advertising agencies, took office as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs more than a month ago to spearhead the campaign.
At a congressional hearing, Beers testified that key points of the PR campaign will include these messages: The U.S. is not fighting a war against Islam; Osama bin Laden is a false prophet; and the U.S. is working to provide humanitarian aid.
Jack G. Shaheen thinks the first point is key.
Shaheen is a media critic and author of a number of books on the stereotyping of Arab- and Muslim-Americans in the U.S. media.
Shaheen urges the U.S. government to call on Arab and Muslim leaders to serve as spokespeople in the campaign, not just as advisors.
"I would put them together with Jewish and Christian leaders," Shaheen said, "and on a regular basis, I would use Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and every outlet I could possibly think of, talking about the commonalties and respect that exist among the faiths."
But therein lies another major challenge: getting all those media outlets involved. It looks to be a process that will take more time than most would like.
Voice of America is adding 30 minutes of news to its daily broadcasts in Pashto and Dari, and yesterday VOA began airing broadcasts in Afghanistan to ready the Afghan people for continued bombing during Ramadan.
The justification marched forth was the seventh-century battles by the Prophet Muhammad during Ramadan.
Still, in the coming war of words, VOA is somewhat of a problematic combatant.
It has been an independent news organ since 1976, and it recently inspired congressional ire by broadcasting an interview with the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Moreover, VOA's signals are too weak to be heard clearly on shortwave radios in many Arab countries.
The solution, as proposed by some in Congress, is a new outlet for America's message, to be called the Middle East Radio Network.
Under the proposal, the U.S. would spend $30 million to build FM and AM transmitters in Jordan and Cyprus and would program the new network with call-in shows and music to attract younger viewers.
Beers, in a congressional hearing, spoke of the need to win "the battle for the 11-year-old mind."
But key to any effort, says Shaheen, is attracting "the best and brightest media professionals" to work with the government to hone its message.
These professionals, says Shaheen, could produce television features--some a few minutes in length, some brief advertisements--on Muslims living in the U.S. who express patriotism, support for the war on terrorism, and happiness with their lives here.
But there is a risk attached, warns Ellen Lust-Okar, assistant professor of political science at Yale and a Middle East expert.
The messages could backfire.
"Arabs might say, ‘Look what happens to people over there. They lose all loyalty to the Arab world.’"
Lust-Okar sees yet another problem.
As Beers coordinates the overseas effort, the Advertising Council in New York is selling the war to Americans.
Lust-Okar thinks a divided effort could lead to separate messages, a scenario she finds dangerous.
"There was a time when we could project one image overseas and another at home," Lust-Okar says.
"Those days are gone."
While few have satellite dishes in the Arab world, messages coming out of the U.S. can still be received by those few dishes, reinterpreted, and spread to the general population.
Thus the U.S. needs to consider not just the messages it is telling the Arab world but what it is telling Americans and how those messages might be read.
Lust-Okar says President Bush’s message to the American people that we are fighting a war for freedom strikes many Arabs as hypocritical.
"It’s problematic because one of the major arguments in the Middle East is that the U.S. is supporting some of the most repressive regimes there," including Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait, says Lust-Okar.
The Administration has also delivered a mixed message about the duration of the campaign.
While warning the American people that the war may stretch on for years, it has been reassuring nations near Afghanistan that the war could be over in months.
The message Lust-Okar thinks could be effective, both at home and overseas, is a simple one: the truth.
She says the American public and the Arab world could accept a message that American troops are in Saudi Arabia to protect American oil interests and that the war in Afghanistan is being waged because the Taliban harbors bin Laden, and not because the Taliban oppresses women.
Lust-Okar acknowledged that her just-the-facts prescription would, at best, lessen opposition.
"I think at least it doesn’t make things worse," she says.
Then there are those who question the very idea that the U.S. can change Arabs’ opinion of the U.S.
"People here don’t take Arab public opinion seriously," said Hussein Ibish, communications director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
"It is not enough to throw rhetoric at people. There is nothing that the U.S. can say to Arabs to make them feel good about American foreign policy without adjusting that foreign policy."
November 7, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Carl Bialik is a New York writer who regularly reports on Africa.
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