Propaganda Analysis No.2
November 24, 2006
1.)
“Nuclear Facts, Ver.1” is a 30-second television commercial, commissioned by the Canadian Nuclear Association, which has recently aired on network television stations in Ontario during primetime. The digital copy of the commercial that accompanies this paper was obtained from the CNA’s website (http://cna.ca).
According to its literature, the CNA is a not for profit organization “established to represent the nuclear industry in Canada and promote the development and growth of nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes.” The organization was established in 1960.
It is pertinent to note, here, that the executive committee of the Canadian Nuclear Association represents and is composed of formerly and presently active members of Canada’s nuclear industry.
2)
Television was chosen to disseminate the commercial “Nuclear Facts” because, of all media, t.v. has the greatest reach (and frequency) into most Canadian homes. By choosing to air the commercial during primetime programming in the Ontario market, the CNA is able to reach thousands of people in a broad target audience.
Targeted by the advertisement are members of the public who vote or may otherwise influence government policy concerning nuclear power generation in Ontario. In particular, the commercial targets an audience composed of people who are largely under informed on the benefits and threats of nuclear products; people who are often content to gather their local and global news from glossy news digests and infotainment programs.
The tone of the commercial is light and positively reassuring. Throughout the ad, a woman’s clear, calm voice optimistically lists the proposed benefits of nuclear power generation. The ad’s execution is smoothly dynamic, employing graphic techniques similar to those seen in ads for everyday consumer products such as cars or bathroom cleansers.
By using television, the CNA is able reach an easily influenced mass through a multi-sensory medium with which the audience is familiar and comfortable.
3)
It is the CNA’s hope that, in response to “Nuclear Facts,” the audience will come to support nuclear products. The aim is to persuade individual viewers that nuclear power is a necessary, acceptable, clean, efficient, and ‘friendly’ means of sustainable electricity generation in Ontario.
The video’s long term objective is to manipulate government policy in favour of development of Ontario's nuclear industry. Ultimately, the objective of “Nuclear Facts” is to persuade the public – and so the government -- to support the nuclear industry and its products.
4)
The timing of the release of “Nuclear Facts” and the rest of the campaign of which it is a part, is predictable. In 2006, Ontario contends with demand for electrical power which many believe threatens to overwhelm the province’s current [haha] supply capacity.
Pursuing the major opportunity created by such great demand for electricity, nuclear industrialists have successfully lobbied the government to take the first steps of consideration toward increasing the role of nuclear in Ontario’s future energy mix. Various assessments of Pickering B and Darlington stations are underway by the Ministry of Energy in order to ascertain the viability of refurbishment and, in Darlington’s case, expansion (Ontario Power Generation 1).
As a ‘not-for-profit’ organization bent on furthering acceptance and development of nuclear products in Canada, Ontario’s situation has the CNA mobilized. Convincing the public that nuclear energy products are, indeed, ‘clean,’ ‘reliable,’ and necessary in order to meet Ontario’s energy demands of the years ahead, as the commercial's narrator informs the viewer, is imperative to ensuring that the constituents of the CNA are given the go-ahead by the government to capitalize on energy shortages. Once the public has been coaxed into accepting nuclear, the attitude will represent itself in parliament and policy.
Works CitedCanadian Nuclear Association. Accessed November 23, 2006 http://www.cna.ca.
Ontario Power Generation. "Nuclear and the Energy Mix." Neighbours. Summer 2006: p. 1. Digital copy accessed Accessed November 20, 2006. http://www.opg.com/pdf/PickeringSpring2006.pdf
