A decade ago, the Velsarrans and Nuremese were on pretty good terms, and the Velsarrans shared a fair amount of respect for their southern neighbour. This was before Nuremar was ravaged by a wave of secessionist movements, DryanaNith was seen as a strong but sensible ruler (nobody in Velsarrad had really personally met her), and Nuremar was a coherent force to be reckoned with.

However, this posed a bit of threat to Velsarrad. Cultural and political influence from Nuremar was damaging the national identity of the south of Velsarrad. There were petitions and protests in some southern cantons to join Nuremar.

So King Arthran of Velsarrad decided something needed to be done. He scoured through libraries of statistics, trying to find something to be used to alienate the Nuremese. The Senior Magistrate for Propaganda eventually decided upon Nuremese eating habits, labelling them as pigs.

An all out propaganda war ensued between the two kingdoms, with Queen DryanaNith furious. Eventually, she (or more specifically her advisors) decided that it would help her reputation for her to give a speech in Verlessa, the Velsarran capital, to improve her country's reputation. The Senior Magistrate for Propaganda thought that it would help the Velsarran propaganda campaign for her to give the speech, so it was allowed.

So halfway through this speech in front of thousands of Velsarran citizens, DryanaNith tells a joke, laughs at her own joke, then snorts. The people go hysterical, and from then on, the label of Nuremese pigs stuck.

Please feel free to share anecdotes from your own worlds, on the subject of propaganda! I'd love to read them.