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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 4 - 2005
Saatchi's Roberts Advised DoD on Rebranding 'War' from Brandweek 
Saatchi's Roberts Advised DOD on Rebranding 'War' September 19, 2005 NEW YORK -- Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts has been telling the Pentagon how to spin the war on terror. His advice? 'Call our struggle, the Fight for a Better World.' Roberts was invited by the U.S. Department of Defense to address 'various U.S. Defense Intelligence Agencies' at a conference in New York held last March 9, according to a copy of Roberts' speech obtained by Brandweek. (A complete copy of the speech can be found HERE.) His recommendation - derived from his 2004 book, Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands - bears a conceptual similarity to a term top Bush Administration officials used in August to replace the phrase 'war on terror.' That phrase, 'the global struggle against violent extremism,' was widely ridiculed when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others began using it instead of 'the war on terror.' Government officials have since gone back to using the 'war on terror' moniker. Roberts - better known for his strong relationship with Procter & Gamble than his insights into suicide bombing - confirmed the March meeting. 'I was surprised to be invited,' he said, adding that 'the audience was intelligent, engaged, open and pragmatic; they listened keenly and we had a very lively discussion.' Roberts said he did not know whether his words provided the thematic origin for the Pentagon's ongoing attempt to rebrand the war. But he stood by it last week: 'They should change their language. The 'Fight for a Better World' is more inclusive, more optimistic and more engaging.' The Department of Defense did not return requests for comment. Roberts is certainly not the only Madison Avenue image-maker who has offered advice in Washington or taken a hand in branding the conflict in Iraq and elsewhere. But his words offer a rare look at what those people are actually saying. The image of the war has become increasingly important as support for the Iraq conflict has declined. The key to winning, President Bush told the United Nations last Wednesday, is that 'we must defeat the terrorists on the battlefield and we must also defeat them in the battle of ideas.' Roberts' theme was that America had to change the way potential terrorists feel emotionally about the U.S., and that the current way American officials describe the war is hurting, not helping, matters. 'The War on Terror doesn't have a lot of positive equity going for it,' he warned. Roberts started with his qualifications to tackle the issue: 'I graduated top of my class at the hard-nosed Pepsi school for negotiation, and for my prize I got project Babylon - to build seven Pepsi plants in Iraq.' He also mentioned that the Saatchi founders were born in Baghdad. He then suggested that America seek to become as beloved a brand as Harley-Davidson or Apple, so that the country becomes a 'Lovemark' for foreigners. Roberts suggested that in addition to utilizing the U.S. armed forces ('a threatening, punitive, brutal and unilateral fighting force full of young, slightly pissed-off males'), America also needs to tackle poverty and disease. 'I'm not cynically proposing that you change the language and not actually do anything about making the world a better place . . . [America needs a] 21st century organization to tackle global AIDS, malnutrition and malaria . . . This becomes your 'product' that you communicate, campaign and recruit for, and advertise around.' At the end of the presentation, he even got in a swipe at one of his agency rivals: 'It's certainly not version 2.0 of Charlotte Beers, who tried to repackage Uncle Sam the same way she did Uncle Ben's. Programs about happy Muslims assimilated into America just won't cut it.' (Beers was a chairman at JWT and a former undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. The latter position is now held by Karen Hughes.) A number of marketing executives have addressed the U.S.' sagging image abroad. Keith Reinhardt, chairman of DDB Worldwide, runs a group called Business for Diplomatic Action, which seeks to recruit U.S. business leaders in the task and has so far drawn support from McDonald's and Exxon. Reinhardt, acting as president of the group, also testified before a U.S. House subcommittee on national security in August 2004. The gist of his testimony was that the U.S. was not a credible messenger to the world. Cari Eggspuehler, executive director for the group, said much of Reinhardt's phrasing was echoed in Hughes' testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July. 'It was freaky,' said Eggspuehler, who added that other pols have also poached the group's language. A former assistant to Beers, Eggspuehler said the federal government previously had a low opinion about communication techniques, but over the last few months, 'They've started to listen and pay attention. That's a huge shift.' Others saw the Roberts speech as noteworthy, too. 'It's unusual,' said Earl Tomlinson, a 25-year CIA veteran who has served clandestinely in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is now president of TSR Global Inc., an investigative security firm in Dallas. 'Normally . . . you'd find someone who's a cultural awareness specialist within the State Department' to give such a briefing. Tom Messner, a founder of New York-based agency Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, who has experience with political campaigns, said it's common for the military to talk to agencies when it comes to recruiting. But for selling America to those who hate it? 'I've not heard of it.' He said he has never been asked to pitch marketing ideas to psy-ops types: 'I would not know how to talk to a fanatic who wants to commit suicide. I wouldn't know [how] to convince him of the error of his thinking.' The Pentagon has lately begun to use marketing as a weapon. The Lincoln Group, Washington, this summer won part of a $300 million contract to improve pubic opinion abroad and to assist coalition forces with their Iraqi communications. 'If you want to influence someone, you have to touch their emotions,' Col. James Treadwell of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element told the Washington Post in June. That echoes almost directly Roberts' speech, in which he said: 'Using emotion instead of reason is a big, transformational idea . . . the most powerful relationships run on deep emotional connections.' Treadwell could not be reached for comment at press time. This isn't Saatchi's first foray into global politics, either. It was Charles and Maurice Saatchi who remade Margaret Thatcher's image in the 1970s - softening her hair and voice - making her electable as Britain's first female prime minister. And it was in 1999 that Roberts triggered a political scandal in his home country of New Zealand when he wined and dined premier Jenny Shipley. Her government later gave Saatchi a $26 million tourism ad contract while other government budgets were being cut. One newspaper called it the 'Slippery Slope of Sleaze.' --with Todd Wasserman |