critical analysis 2

Peter J. Smith

Dr. Kahn

Propaganda Power and Politics

March 3, 2010

Critical Analysis Number Two

Propaganda posters were rampant during World War Two. These posters could be found all over the place, not only in countries with fascist regimes or dictators, such as Italy and Germany, but also in democratic nations such as the United States. These posters were used to impart different propagandistic messages that varied greatly. One poster, in particular, used several propaganda techniques to warn soldiers against the supposed dangers of casual sex and promiscuous women.

This World War Two poster is a well constructed, intelligent piece of propaganda. One of the smartest things the poster is able to do is utilize the propaganda technique of pre-persuasion to frame the message that is being communicated. This is accomplished by the large, cocked pistol and the bold, underlined word “loaded?” located at the top of the poster. The pistol and this word are among the largest objects depicted in the poster. The size of these items, and their inherent symbolism and allusions, frame the rest of the viewers experience as he or she looks at the rest of this poster. The large loaded gun, and the word loaded, gets the viewer thinking of what it is commonly associated with: danger and death. This idea sets up the way the viewer will look at the rest of the poster.

Another propaganda technique that this poster uses is its appeal to emotion or pathos. This poster uses its imagery of a gun, with its symbolic relation to danger, and the three women pictured, to induce a feeling of fear in the viewer. These items and the text beneath them that says, “Don’t take chances with pickups”, and “Loose women may be loaded with disease.” create a sense of fear for the viewer because this propaganda attempts to make the viewer feel very afraid of casual sex and promiscuous women. According to this poster picking up a girl is taking a “chance” and soldiers should proceed with care because these women could have a sexually transmitted disease that could stop you from serving in the war.

A third propaganda technique that this poster appears to use is logos or an appeal to logic. All of the imagery that is utilized in this poster lends itself to a logical appeal. A loaded gun is not something that you would want to treat lightly. By definition the loaded gun is dangerous, therefore logic dictates that you should be careful about how you handle one. This poster extends this logic to the choices one makes regarding sex. It would be illogical for a soldier to have unprotected sex (or have sex at all) with a woman he just met because, according to the poster, promiscuous women can be “loaded” with disease.

One of the most clever propaganda techniques that this poster utilizes is its expert use of color. The color in this poster maximizes the propagandistic message and limits any kind of interference. The word loaded at the top of the image is in bright bold red letters which further the idea of danger that is presented in this poster. At the bottom of the poster the word loaded is again made bold and highlighted by the color red emphasizing a sense of danger. The highlighting of the word loaded enhances the connotation that this poster is imparting to the viewer since the color red is closely related with a warning or danger. Another part of this image, that utilizes color to maximize its propagandistic message, can be found in the bottom right hand corner. In this corner it says “VD is not Victory” with the letter v highlighted in blue. This strategic color choice, also appeals to the emotions of the viewer by subversively harping on the viewers sense of patriotism. Blue is commonly associated with the United States because it is one of the three colors of the American flag. By infusing the sentence “VD is not Victory” with the color blue, the designers of this poster are instilling a sense of fear in the viewer. This fear is that if they have casual sex and get a debilitating disease they will be unpatriotic because they will not be able to continue serving their country.

In conclusion this World War Two poster warning soldiers to not take chances with promiscuous women utilizes several intelligent propaganda techniques to get its message across. This poster seems to push this warning even further, almost to the point that it tells soldiers not to have sex with these women at all. Although this poster may have had some good intentions (sexually transmitted diseases are a significant problem and safe sex limits these diseases), the poster almost seems to be blaming women for contaminating the military. A poster that emphasizes safe sex choices and does not blame women for this problem, or instill fear into the viewer for having casual sex, would have been the appropriate message to display.