Marketer Uses September 11th World Trade Center Tragedy to Exploit Americans

It is sad that many would use the horrific events that occurred September 11th to market their goods and services. People will though. Last year GI Joe sales increased 47% year over year.

September 11th: World Trade Center Tragedy:

What happened at the World Trade Center was sad. I saw pictures a girlfriend of mine took that day. I saw videos of the plane smashing into the WTC. Though I was not there and do not know the damage it caused first hand, I was nearly deployed to fight an unknown enemy that day.

Ever since that sad day many people have been living in fear caused by awful leaders who use fear as an instrument to manipulate social policy for self gain. In fact, this entire month is (in my mind) devoted to that purpose.

Introducing National Preparedness Month...

Politicians are marketers, and many of them are greed driven scumbags.

September is National Preparedness Month. Tom Ridge is waiting until September 9th to make the major announcement. By waiting until September 9th to make the major announcement they ensure they get maximum press coverage and intertwine their message with September 11th anniversary sympathy stories.

The sad tragedy that occurred at the World Trade Center is likely being used to exploit voters.

The official press release is here:

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0481.xml

A more candid (and perhaps more honest) look at the story exists here:

http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_08_08.html#001686

The timing of this National Preparedness Month is questionable at best. If it is such an important issue why did we wait 3 years to put it together? Why are we announcing it to be picked up with the September 11th anniversary stories just months before the election?

The True Power of Al Queda:

Politicians and marketers are now using the Al Queda card to manipulate more social policy issues than you or I will ever know.

Example:

Drug companies are sucking a ton of blood out of the economy.

"The most startling fact about 2002 is that the combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion)." - Marcia Angell http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244

Some Americans want to save money by buying cheaper drugs from Canada. Of course that means Al Queda may want to attack this cheaper drug supply:

"'Cues from chatter' gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs." said acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/08/12/fda.terror.ap/

Political Framing:

Politicians have also been busy framing various socially destructive bills with names that are the exact opposite of what they do. See

The Patriot Act http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12126&c=207

Healthy Forests Initiative http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/004931.html

Bush for the Common Man:

While the average American worker is living in fear and confusion at the Republican National Convention Bush stated "In this time of change, government must take the side of working families."

http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=4601

That is an especially interesting concept since under his administration:

"Commerce Department data on national income trends released on August 27 point toward troubling developments in the current economic recovery. Of greatest concern, wage and salary growth for workers has been exceptionally poor while corporate profits have enjoyed unusually large gains."

http://www.cbpp.org/9-3-04ui.htm

"Average CEO compensation at the 50 firms outsourcing the most service jobs increased by 46 percent in 2003, compared to a 9 percent average increase for all CEOs at the 365 large companies surveyed by Business Week. Top outsourcers earned an average of $10.4 million in 2003, 28 percent more than the average CEO compensation of $8.1 million. From 2001 to 2003, the top 50 outsourcing CEOs earned $2.2 billion while sending an estimated 200,000 jobs overseas."

http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2004/EE2004_pr.html

What is the War on Terrorism?

The war on terrorism is an Orwellian mechanism for consolidating wealth and power. Nothing more, nothing less.

Terry Anderson was held hostage for seven years and has forgiven his captors.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9611/29/anderson/

No amount of killing will bring people back to life.You can not fight terrorism with terrorism and life lived in fear is not really life at all.

About Aaron Wall: Aaron is a web marketer who believes the web should be used to hold leaders accountable for their actions and help the world live in peace.