Miguel Afonso Caetano"The new front in the information wars: Lego-ganda. And it’s quickly gaining momentum at a time when viral images of war can shape public opinion.
China used it for public relations during Covid. Last year, Russia and its allies used it to sway Moldova during their elections. Legos were used to send a warning to Ukrainians as the country was launching a new recruitment drive—to eerie effect. In the image, a white Lego logo set in a red background floats in a sunny sky, emblazoned with two words in Ukrainian: “Sorrow Cubes.”
An AI generated image said to be made by Russian groups, shared as Ukraine was recruiting new soldiers. The Lego logo was replaced by a Ukrainian language alternative: ‘Sorrow Cubes.’ The other message says: ‘The best way to deliver bad news.’
Cartoons and toys have long been used by governments to rally their people and whip up fear against enemies. During this war Iran is cutting videos based on Japanese-style anime and the Pixar movie “Inside Out.”
But Lego stands out for its massive footprint across the world, with revenues reaching $13 billion last year. If people didn’t grow up playing with the bricks, which began production in their current form in the 1950s, there’s a good chance their children did. And the cartoonish portrayal of combat using childlike blocky figures helps to sanitize gritty images of war, helping it to get past social media filters—and pushing it far beyond Iran’s borders.
“Lego works because it is a universally recognized cultural cue, and cultural cues carry preloaded emotional associations that may bypass critical processing,” says Lukasz Olejnik, an independent technology consultant and a visiting fellow at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. “The familiar aesthetic lowers the audience’s guard precisely when a political payload is delivered.”"
https://www.wsj.com/world/lego-ai-propaganda-wars-iran-ab29cc6c
#Propaganda #PropagandaWars #Memes #Lego #InformationWars #Trolling
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