A new CSIS ad campaign is using Soviet-style imagery to warn Canadians about disinformation

Aaron Erlich, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it’s important to make people aware of misleading information online. But he said the wording in the CSIS campaign was “not the most straightforward” and appeared to be an attempt not just to educate but to invoke fear.

Erlich said clumsy messaging can backfire, and he would like to know if the messaging was tested at all to see how it would be received.

Hegz,

All of this, and they could have just started airing the house hippo commercial again…

cheery_coffee,

I wanted one of those so bad. As long as you close the peanut butter jar at night and lock up your socks, they seem quite pleasant to have around.

thecam,
@thecam@lemmy.world avatar

They remade the house hippo ad but it is super woke.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R_tOSRynZU

mrmeanlionman,

I don’t see what is “super woke” about this.

6fn, (edited )
6fn avatar

Extraordinary claims being made? The source the video links to is breakthefake.ca. You can visit the source yourself and verify whether random internet comments describing the website are truthful and accurate.

thecam,
@thecam@lemmy.world avatar

The remake is telling you not to be criticial but to make sure anything you encounter online comes from a “trusted source” or is “fact checked”. The website it tells you to visit is just woke propaganda.

SpaceCowboy,
@SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

So to you “woke” simply means not trusting everything you read on the internet?

I think you might have a house hippo infestation you should look into.

isVeryLoud,

What does “woke” mean?

thecam,
@thecam@lemmy.world avatar 

<span style="color:#323232;">Woke
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Umbrella term for individuals who are engrossed by social justice and thinks of themselves as saviors with a moral high ground, but remain willfully ignorant to the irrationality of their claims and the problems they create. These individuals give special treatment to certain minorities in hopes of ending racism and perpetuate mental illnesses as the norm.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">My son's woke kindergarten teacher taught him that he's actually a girl because he played with dolls.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">by sealcake May 27, 2022
</span>

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woke

grte,

Which mental illnesses would those be? Could you be specific?

thecam,
@thecam@lemmy.world avatar

You must be a troll.

grte, (edited )

I’m just looking for clarity. You presumably endorse the definition you posted and I want to understand what it means. Which mental illnesses?

[Edit] Is there some reason you don’t want to clarify this? You seem pretty cagey.

marathon,

deleted_by_author

    •
    6fn,
    6fn avatar

    1. This new house hippo is "woke"

    2. The original house hippo is "not woke" (It appears exempt from "woke", because the new hippo is not just "woke" but "super woke")

    3. Using Bill Maher's supplied definition, it follows that the remake is now promoting "race as the first and foremost thing people should always see everywhere" [compare the original and remake to confirm this]

    4. visible_confusion.png

    Grimpen,

    I just watched The House Hippo 2.0 and I think it’s totally woke because…

    You know, I can’t even keep up with the “x and y is woke!!1!” crowd. I’ll have to do a frame by frame comparison. Maybe it’s some of the production crew or voice actors or something? Maybe the VFX were done by a “woke” company? I don’t know. I can’t be bothered.

    cygnus,
    @cygnus@lemmy.ca avatar

    Ah yes: DO YOU KYOSH SHHO IS BEHIYD IT? coupled with the matryoshka doll. Good old 1980s style xenophobia. Sure, Russia is behind a lot of disinfo, but come on.

    image

    Splitdipless,

    I approve. I can’t wait to see the Chinese version in the next campaign.

    ClopClopMcFuckwad,
    @ClopClopMcFuckwad@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    SpaceCowboy,
    @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

    Yes, I often hear on the internet that Trudeau has been bought by the Chinese… image

    SpaceCowboy,
    @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

    Russian disinformation appeals to the older crowd, while Chinese disinformation appeals to the younger crowd what with TikTok and all.

    So the Chinese version would be very different as it would be targeted at a different demographic. May not even be an ad campaign at all, could just come in the form of blocking TikTok. Though it could just be in the form of regulating TikTok in some way, there is now precedent for regulating social media.

    Outside of TikTok, Chinese disinformation is kinda amateur hour at the moment. I mean just look at hexbear LOL. You think that bullshit is convincing anyone of anything? They lack the sophistication the Russians have developed in the last decade and a half. They seem to go for quantity over quality and that’s not at all effective.

    Though they have been a little more successful in simply discouraging discussion on how shitty the CCP is. But that’s more a censorship thing than a disinformation thing. How do you do an ad campaign on that? “Don’t not believe the things you didn’t hear about China.” Doesn’t make a lot of sense.

    Presently42,

    Shno* and beniyd* - but your point is a good one

    cygnus,
    @cygnus@lemmy.ca avatar

    I figured the H could be latin instead of a Cyrillic N.

    dlpkl,

    It’s topical and I’m glad they’re being direct about it. Any more direct and it would have just been Putin’s face with a speech bubble. Unfortunate that the used Russian cultural themes but eh, it is what it is.

    grte, (edited )

    The Soviet Union is dead and gone. What this makes me think is that our spy agency is headed by someone old and out of touch with what disinformation looks like these days. Some cold warrior who hasn’t taken in any new information in 30 years.

    [edit] I got kinda curious about this so I looked it up. The head of CSIS is David Vigneault.

    In his first public speech since he was appointed Director, he named Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Venezuela as “countries of concern”

    Do you sense a theme? No Iran? No Saudi Arabia? They threatened us with our own 9/11.

    Tell me this guy doesn’t seem like he’s living in 1950.

    dlpkl,

    What about that particular poster makes you think of the Soviet Union?

    grte,

    The Soviet aesthetic.

    cheery_coffee,

    The font, the Cyrillic letters, the colours, the art style, the Russian nesting doll… you know, just all of it.

    dlpkl,

    So like…Russian?

    SpaceCowboy,
    @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

    Many of the people that Russia is targeting with their disinformation are the same people that were worried about Russians in the 80s.

    Don’t know if this will work, it’s possible nothing can get through to them. But for the simpletons that are susceptible to disinformation you really need to dumb things down for them.

    RUSSIA DO BAD THING ON INTERNET. DON’T TRUST INTERNET.

    Maybe a couple of neurons will fire and they might question things they see on the internet a little. Sometimes.

    Probably not, but it’s worth a shot.

    stepan,
    @stepan@lemmy.ca avatar

    Yeah I agree for sure.

    It is possible to have a nuanced view here, to recognize that a) Putin is comitting several war crimes in ukraine and b) that governments are taking advantage of the war to justify a hyper-militaristic , hawkish foreign policy as well as mild xenophobia.

    Unfortunately whenever you point out part b) , people assume youre some kind of putin sympathizer

    its absurd how black and white peoples brains can turn into during wartime

    CanadaPlus,

    Wow, these almost have the feel of old war propaganda posters.

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