Effective propaganda sometimes depends on our tendency to see or hear what we expect, rather than what is there. Exploiting this tendency, propagandists can say or show one thing, knowing most of us will see or hear something else. Non-controversial examples showing how easily information can be "hidden in plain sight" are found most readily in non-propaganda.



Discrepancies in images are often harder to spot. The best non-propaganda example of which I'm aware is the picture below. It appeared as an album cover in 1976. The photo has been intentionally manipulated to include numerous 'errors' that most cannot see unless they are pointed out, and some have problems with even then. Given the album's title, we can assume that the photographer, the producers and the marketers were not attempting to manipulate us, but to demonstrate our perceptual blind spots. Indeed, Andrew Gold (the performer) claims that there are 32 things wrong with the picture, and credits photographer Ethan Russell for the idea and its execution.