Seminar week 8: Propaganda
Contextual portfolio task: 500 word advertisement review
The propaganda posters
Savile Lumley, 1915, Daddy, What Did You Do in the
Great War?
Savile Lumley poster was set some time after the war, it was
used to encourage and convince more men to join the armed forces in 1915. The way
the whole content and stylistic has been implemented to the poster is what
makes the poster effective. There is a family in their living room, possibly what
we would call family time. The father is sitting in an armchair in the living
room, his daughter, who is sitting on his lap is reading newspaper and asks him
“Daddy what did you do in the Great War”. His son is kneeling on the floor
playing with toy soldiers and a tank. The father Looks thoughtful and guilty
because he did not volunteer and fight.
There is only the father, with his little daughter and son,
the mother is absent which could be for two possible reasons. One reason it
could be because this poster is set in the 19 century, were women were not
considered leaders, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic area
and so they were typically always up cooking, cleaning or gathering snacks for
everyone and so it was normal for them to be absent on family time. On the
other hand the reason for her absent is done deliberately to show who they are
specifically aiming to influence, which is the father. Placing the mother there
would make it seem that the poster is about family. I think another reason it
was done this way is to portray a sense of a father’s responsibility. Who do
you join the army to protect? Your child is delicate; do you not want to
protect them from harm? The children show another reason why it is a good
reason to join the army.
‘What Did You Do in the Great War?’ this challenges a man
but also feels like blackmail. It makes the targeted audience feel weak, less
than a man because it is the fact that a child even asked her father ‘what did
you do’ as if everyman was in the army. They
used the men’s guilt to as a recruitment tool. The message this poster is
trying to get through is to not become like someone like ‘Daddy’ and volunteer.
I personally have sympathy for the pressure men had to put
up with to join and fight in the war, everyday must have been a battle itself
trying to avoid judgemental questions.
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