Maureen Dowd's column in today's NY Times contains this extract:

Mr. Kerry, a Boston Democrat, had thought about announcing in front of a warship, wrote The Boston Globe's Glen Johnson, but felt the need for something bigger, to stage a more chesty confrontation with Mr. Bush. ... So the issue is illusion: can Senator Kerry match President Bush's ability to appropriate an aircraft carrier as a political prop?

Is there a word or phrase to describe the manipulation of background in a camera pose to make a subliminal statement?

Public figures will go to extraordinary lengths to select, and even edit, the scenery in a photo opp. For instance, it has also been reported that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had the naked breast of a female bronze draped for a photo opp recently because he didn't want to be photographed in front of another "boob". I didn't make this up, honest.

Some might argue that Arnold Schwarzenegger's candidacy for Governor of California is the ultimate expression of this cinematic art. "Electaprop"?