Homeland security lowers hiring standards and floods social media with patriotic, often xenophobic, recruitment posts
Recently I spoke with senior tech reporter and editor for Guardian US, Johana Bhuiyan, for this story:
“From Uncle Sam to social media memes: inside homeland security’s push to swell Ice ranks”
Below is a brief extract from the article. Please read visit The Guardian to read the full story here.
“Marketing experts say that taken together, the various posts show a scattered strategy, probably because the agency is targeting such a wide array of audiences.
The posts depict a country that the younger generation has never known, says Mara Einstein, the author of Hoodwinked, How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults. “This is a generation that has lived through permacrisis and has never known that shiny city on the hill that people of older generations think of when they think of the US,” Einstein said. “Even if you have a dual target, advertisers have to ask how do you talk to both of these people.”
“Experts worry that the rapid pace of recruitment, paired with the polarizing messaging the DHS is using will attract a group of people desperate for work who may share the xenophobic and anti-immigrant stances of the administration.
“This feels like a multi-level marketing thing where you’re going to get the people who are really vulnerable and desperate and looking for some type of job who is willing to do this,” said Einstein.”