One of the primary ways the Party controls its populace in 1984 is through propaganda. The most obvious example of this comes in the form of the Big Brother posters that are plastered everywhere throughout the city. “…the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran” (Orwell 5). This use of propaganda is particularly effective in controlling citizens because of its tie-in with discipline. Every citizen is reminded when they look at those posters that if they step out of line, they will be removed from society. This concept is discussed in detail in Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, where he introduces Panopticism, an idea which says that to control a large number of people, you need only give them the idea that they are under constant surveillance. “Whenever one is dealing with a multiplicity of individuals on whom a task or a particular form of behaviour must be imposed, the panoptic schema may be used” (Foucault 205). The Party also uses common products, such as gin and cigarettes, to remind its citizens of the war efforts by calling them vaguely “Victory Cigarettes” and “Victory Gin” (Orwell 8). The word victory is not only a constant reminder to the citizens of the war effort, but it also gives them hope that their side will one day win, thereby creating constant public support for the war. This is a particularly manipulative propaganda device because in reality the Party makes sure that the war is forever ongoing so as to prevent any kind of upset in the power structures. “…the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact” (Orwell 164). This then leads to the Party’s three slogans, which are plastered on the face of the Ministry of Truth: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Orwell 26). These slogans are important in controlling the populace, as well, because they encourage doublethink, a word created by the Party to mean “to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them …” (Orwell 32). This is a manipulative device because it keeps the populace in a constant state of confusion and therefore prevents the formulation of any individual thoughts that would go against the Party. In other words, as O’Brien explains, it encourages solidarity: “’You know the Party slogan ‘Freedom is Slavery.’ Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone—free—the human being is always defeated’” (Orwell 218). 

Propaganda is used in our own society to manipulate the public primarily through the use of advertising. Advertisers use techniques of language manipulation to convince society to buy certain products or think in certain ways. In his article “Sell! Buy! Semiolinguistic Manipulation in Print Advertising,” published on the California State University – Northridge website, Alan C. Harris points to multiple print advertising campaigns as using words or phrases which manipulate public thinking. He sites the Brooks ad that reads “Roads Scholar,” Levis’ “Strokes of Jeanius” and Martini & Rossi’s “In a Glass by Itself” as examples of ways in which companies use double meanings to associate a product with a larger idea (Harris 6). “In a Glass by Itself” makes the product seem sophisticated and superior, thereby making the person who drinks it sophisticated and superior by association (Harris 6). Levis’ ad makes the brand seem like “genius” and the wearer, too, again making the buyer feel superior and like a “genius” (Harris 6). Finally, the Brooks ad implies that the person who wears these shoes will “become an expert in running the roads” (Harris 6). Additionally, the font size and boldness of text can subconsciously steer the viewer’s thinking, as well. Van Dijk points to this technique as an intentional means of manipulation: “… specific features of text and talk – such as its visual representation – may specifically affect the management of strategic understanding in short-term memory, so that readers pay more attention to some pieces of information than others” (Van Dijk 365). So, while we may not have reached the level of manipulation present in 1984, the use of language manipulation in our current-day advertising shows that we may be headed in that direction.