Thus, the poster enables the propagandist to condemn or ridicule the enemy via a concrete and simplified means and through usually simple, direct messages. This is particularly true of pictures, which are all the more effective as they are contained entities which concentrate information of a highly subjective nature. It is generally agreed that rather than being convinced by logical arguments, the public is attracted by stories or pictures which have a sentimental value, which is why propaganda mostly relies on the emotional appeal, and influences through the direct use of suggestion. The purpose of this study is to consider the visual propaganda on the British Home Front, and the manner in which British propagandists portrayed the German enemy from one World War to the next. More precisely, my objective here is to compare the corpus of WW1 and WW2 British posters that use the image of the German enemy, therefore saying something about the nature of the enemy or comment on the actions of that enemy. World War 1 posters share the enlistment message and ask people to purchase war bonds but otherwise concentrate on instilling hatred and a desire for revenge in citizens and are singularly without humor.ĭuring the two world wars, the combatant nations exploited the power of words and images to construct persuasive visual messages, evoking feelings of fear and anger, as well as pride and patriotism to unite the population behind the government–-and against the enemy. World War 2 posters ask citizens to save, to reflect, to obey the instructions of the British authorities, as well as to enlist in the different services. Analysis reveals a wider variety of subjects and goals for the World War 2 posters as well as humor, and unless the images are imported from the USSR or other eastern European countries, they never reach the intensity of violence of the early war’s propaganda. The posters are arranged according to a crescendo of violence pictured or described.
Through content analysis World War 1 poster propaganda produced in Britain is compared with its World War 2 counterpart. Propaganda, Atrocity, World War 1, World War 2, Public Opinion, Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird )
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