Open University: Les lendemains qui chantent

I admit, it took me a full day as to why the Open University ad seemed familiar. A young man and a young woman, with perfect teeth and smile, looking upwards for a glorious future. Wait, I had seen that before, countless times in propaganda posters! First the backstory, in 1938 Maurice Thorez then head of the French communist party uses the sentence "les lendemains qui chantent" - the singing days after - where a bright future awaits the working class. And here we are, just look at the picture in the ad (fine 100% equivalence etc...) but if you look at the photo used this IS propaganda.

Some casual anti-Hizbollah propaganda on the net

That is interesting.

I was looking at a website I browse daily and in a section about "the best printed t-shirts for men" were some ads in the middle.

Kitchen decor and storage.

Website looking for a new writers.

Anti-Hizbollah propaganda.

China textile exhibition.

Wait what?

There you go ads showed up on scrollers in that order. Actually there was a "read more" button. Which honestly I did not check because I was busy doing a screenshot of the ad above (you're welcome).

OK so for the ad:

(Screen 1)

"After every hit for its leadership, the confusion of Hizbollah goes out in the open and how permeated their ranks are"

(Screen 2)

"Is serving the purposes of the destructive Iranian agenda worth the losses the party is incurring in terms of sacrifices?"

All this reminds me of this campaign - here and here. Same questions - who is booking this and with what money? Sure, the purposes are known though. Are these changing the "hearts and minds" of people? I honestly doubt.

Ronaldo comes cheap as a propaganda instument for KSA

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

So superstar footballer Ronaldo (and his family, including companion Georgina) are in Saudi Arabia after his deal with Al Nasr club to the tune of 214.5 million Dollars. Well, to begin with there was a special rule for Ronaldo allowing him to live - without wedding (gasp!) - with his partner, something unheard of prior in KSA. Here's what is interesting, the footballer is actually coming off as a cheap propaganda machine for KSA.

Forget the NEOM project, the real attraction are the shoes of Georgina displayed in a row in from of her shower - the image made the tour of every other instagram page reporting from the region. His children are "speaking Arabic 2 months after being in Saudi" - again, another video that made the tour. He celebrated founding day dressed in a local attire (you guessed where it came from), and the list continues. A Saudi "blogger" (or was that a "youtuber"?) who is considered "chabihat Georgina" (the doppledanger of Georgina) had a nose job for the comparison to be more complete, and Egyptian actress Yasmine Sabri has been accused of copying the photos of Georgina (same poses, same outfits, etc...) on her own social media pages.

If you wanted a cleaner, more polished image for a land that is otherwise different in reality, 214,5 million Dollars are getting you an excellent deal. As I said, when it comes to a propaganda machine, Ronaldo - and in extenso his family are the perfect instruments. Everyone is obsessed with their every move, every outfit, and believe it or not Al Nasr actually lost a match recently but hey football is just a "side game" in the bigger echelon of things.

So is the Salvator Mundi on the royal yacht of a major Saudi royalty? Is NEOM some silly delusion in the middle of a desert? Who cares? Because did you see the 4th shoe to the left in Georgina's photo?