Task 3
The final piece of the assignment I am going to write a short report on the two posters we discussed using all of my notes.
The uses of propaganda posters in World War 1
“Daddy what did YOU do in the Great War?”
On the poster you see a man and his two children. A girl is sitting on his lap with an open book, and a boy is sitting on the floor playing with soldiers. The daughter looks at him asking “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?”. They designed the poster to induce a sense of patriotic guilt. They were trying to capture the British men unwilling to volunteer for the war and make them feel guilty if they didn’t join. The picture depicts a situation in the future, after the war, where the daughter asks her dad expectantly how he contributed to the war. The war on the poster is already over, the dad can't re-do it. This sends a message to the young boys, unwilling to go to war. Making them think what they would tell their children if they asked what he had done for the war. It also shows that he will come home to his family. The family in the poster are smartly dressed and look wealthy. The colours in the poster symbolise the war and army, the curtains have red roses on them and the chair has the sign of the royal coat of arms on it. This would also make the man think because these are marks of patriotism but this man has not done the patriotic thing. Everything in the poster is positive; nothing would put men off from joining the war even the boy’s toy soldiers are all standing up.
“At the front”
This poster would stand out to men because it is showing cavalry in battle, with horses reacting to an explosion in the foreground. This poster is trying to make boys interested in joining war to fight for their country. “at the front” stands out to all readers, this would seem exciting to boys because they would be fighting at the front with their horses