Skip to main content

Ads That I Like: #60


Propaganda from the outside looks like a pretty cushy gig, working up the masses with simplistic slogans has never been too hard, let’s face it. Consequently, this blog has featured its fair share of it. Some of my favourites include:Above is a new one to add to that list. Here we have a novel bit of propaganda on a postcard, dating from the Spanish Civil War (an interesting time for those interested in propaganda). This one here is from the Zona Republicana and dates around late-1936.

On first glance I expected this to be the work of pesky anarchists, but then I realised that this is covered with the names of socialist unions: Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), Partido Socialista Unificada (PSU); and there is no sign of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, the key anarchist group. Yet their colours – the red and black – are there for all to see. That and the rather sad imagery tell me that the work of anarchists is afoot!

Now, of course you want to lionise sacrifice and mobilise the punters to the point that they’re willing to pick up a rifle and risk their necks for the cause. I guess guilt is a good lever to do that, but how many timid Nigels out there are you going to scare off with this message? The dude has a hole in his head! It’s not exactly encouraging.

Besides, what’s this guy got to be stroppy about? The dude got shot in the head! ”I got shot in the head you prick! What have you done?”

“Err... I haven’t been shot in the head...?” (and all the while in your head, you’re like, “dude, you’re not really selling it to me...”).

Comments

So, how does this compare to today's propaganda. I don't keep up on it, but I'm sure there are some interesting parallels.
USelaine said…
Where on earth do you find these things?!
Kris McCracken said…
Boise Diva, well I think that today a lot of propaganda is a little more subtle. Thus you get something like the US Army computer game, which is in a lot of ways filled with ideas reminiscent of the older posters, but not as explicit in "demanding" recruitment. That said, you don't have to look far to find crude examples. Some of the HAMAS posters, literature and multimedia (to chose one obvious example) is for my money even cruder than anything seen in the Spanish Civil War. The "art" of advertising (or "persuasion") has advanced somewhat since the mid-twentieth century.

USelaine, a lady never tells...

Popular posts from this blog

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...