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American Public Address
WEEK 03: VISUAL RHETORIC & PROPAGANDA
Visual Rhetoric & Propaganda
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Visual Rhetoric: persuasive expression that feature
some visual image or form that functions to influence
or convey meaning
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Propaganda: information, especially of a biased or
misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a
particular political cause or point of view.
World War I Propaganda and Posters
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World War I (1914-1918) was the first time propaganda became a government
sanctioned, essential element of fighting a war.
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Lasswell (1927): Propaganda Technique in World War I defines propaganda as “the
control of opinion by significant symbols … by stories, rumours, reports, pictures and
other forms of social communication.”
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The unity of civilians is “achieved by the repetition of ideas rather than [military]
movements” and “the civilian mind is standardized by news and not by drills” (Lasswell,
1971/1927, p. 11)
World War I Propaganda and Posters
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The New York Times wrote that the war in Europe should be referred to as “the first
press agents’ war” yet felt that “no harm should come from this, as the good sense of
the American people will compel the preservation of strict neutrality to the end” (Ross,
1996, p. 2).
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The US secretaries of war, state and the Navy sent President Woodrow Wilson a letter
on April 13, 1917, requesting the establishment of a Committee on Public Information
(CPI)
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Executive Order 2594: Journalist George Creel was appointed the committee’s civilian
chairman. Creel conceptualized the committee not just as a censorship board but one
that could help build unity and morale and communicate policy.
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The infrastructure of the CPI was so vast by the end of World War I that it could deliver
a message “through virtually every existing communications channel” (Ward, 1985, p.
46).
World War I Propaganda and Posters
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US Army Signal Corps, established in 1860 with a primary responsibility for military
communications. On July 21, 1917, the secretary of war tasked the Corps with creating
a Pictorial History of the War of 1917 through still photographs and motion pictures
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1917 “Uncle Sam” poster created by James Montgomery Flagg
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Over 4 million printed
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Reused for World War II
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Inspired by 1914 British Lord Kitchener poster
Now on to World War II
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998)
• Posters attributes:
• 1. inexpensive
• 2. accessible
• 3. ever-present
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998)
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Posters were the ideal agent for making war aims the personal mission of every citizen.
1. linked the war front to the home front
2. their aesthetic came from the worlds of commercial and fine art
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“Addressing every citizen as a combatant in a war of
production, wartime posters united the power of art with the
power of advertising to sell the idea that the factory and the
home were also arenas of war.”
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998)
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to enlarge people’s views of their wartime responsibilities.
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the poster could persuade in part due to its ready access in
work and public places.
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private industry followed the government’s lead in wanting to
use posters to convert the economy to an all-out war economy
and eventually dwarfed the government’s in number and
variety.
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number produced for plant and factory communities of WW2
was more than the entirety produced for WWI.
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998)
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The US National Museum began collecting this posters
beginning in 1942. [this is fascinating].
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The reason was that Curator of Graphic Arts, Ruel Pardee
Tolman wanted to preserve the work of the artists who
devoted their time (graphic-arts industry).
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Some factories sent Tolman complete series of posters,
allowing present day audiences a better context for the poster
campaign then if a person viewed only one image.
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
Poster History
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1920 – not much of a poster industry
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1940, posters were part of a media landscape that included:
radio, motion pictures, magazines, and billboards.
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Posters were usually seen in the form of 24-sheet billboards.
The one-sheet WW2 poster was seen as something fresh and
novel.
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
Poster History
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Office of War Information put it as:
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“[the posters should be] shouting at people from unexpected
places with all the urgency which this war demands.”
•
AND
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“people should wake up to find a visual message everywhere –
like new snow – every man, woman, and child should be
reached and moved by the message.”
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
Poster History
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Volunteer defense councils took the “poster pledge”:
a) avoid waste
b) treat posters “as real war ammunition”
c) “never let a poster lie idle”
d) make every one count to the fullest extent
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
Poster History
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US Office for Emergency Management’s War Production Board (WPB) produced
production-incentive images for factories including slogans
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“Time is Short”,
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“United We Stand”
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“Every Minute Counts”
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Less than one poster per 100 working men on a shift is usually too thinly spread to be
wholly effective.
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
Poster History
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The democratic rhetoric of the poster medium was
symbolized by the statement “Anyone Can Make a
Poster” and sat in a uneasy balance with the
professional artists who also produced some of our
finest imagery.
• Tensions of propaganda
Bird & Rubenstein – Design for Victory (1998):
War Bonds
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US Treasury Department savings-bond posters projected a human touch and rejected
the World War I high-pressure sales techniques of the Liberty Loan drives.
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emphasis at all times participation rather than propaganda. From Observer to
Participant.
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when savings bonds became defense bonds it featured a logo Daniel Chester French’s
Minuteman at Concord. [connects to a common past and makes both missions equal.]
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the idealized everyman US bondholder created by the Wilkinsons.