This will hurt me...

So here we have yet another mercilessly bleak wartime recruitment poster from that war that we had because that war that we had that was supposed to end all wars really didn’t and what it actually did was set up the preconditions for another, bigger war. Yeah, that war. Now, when it comes to war, I can see the attraction of a) going off to defend your country, c) being embarrassed by girls , c) impressing the ladies , d) being nagged by greedy women, e) plain old fashioned ignorance , f) getting fired up because the other guys are a bunch of rotters and scoundrels , or even g) have a bit of adventure, see the world, meeting interesting people and killing them in all sorts of interesting ways. However, when push comes to shove, it’s best not to let me know what I’m really getting myself into before you have my name on the dotted line. Seriously, I’d see this poster and feel sorry for the poor bloke, but c’mon, the dude doesn’t have any hands ! As the kids at the bus stop say, that sh...

You may well be familiar with the maxim “sex sells”. It is a feature of advertising as old as the craft itself, I would suspect. Indeed, I have featured a number of vintage advertisements on this here very blog over the past six months. You might remember Lolita on the comfy bed ; or, Girl next door likes to suck on the most disguising things (and enjoys it!). Who could forget Hot babe in bikini lounges on the beach slowly cooking, but becoming ever more beautiful ; a clean home = frisky husband ; or (a favourite of my Church of Latter Day Saints-splinter group friends) he has a nice tie and a couple of girls on the go . Of course, there is the good old “ treat her mean and keep her keen ” approach; the brusqueness of a beautiful, proud Soviet cock standing to attention ; and the sexy through the ages “ hot babes with even hotter lawnmowers ”. So, despite this technique being as common as the little minx that can be found in the first link, it still jars me ever so slightly to see i...

Two ads for today, and they have a political theme. As in any dictatorship, anniversaries were big events in the former-East Germany. My post for today features some government posters prepared for the thirtieth anniversary of the DDR in 1979. The emphasis that you can see in the two that I have chosen is generally indicative of the propaganda line of the state: a youthful, peace-loving, hard-working nation that was strongly supported by its citizens. And didn’t that turn out to be true? These posters interest me as much for the way that they conflict with the general idea of what East Germany was supposed to be like as the designs themselves. Remember, for most of us in the West the images of the DDR were stark: depressing, horrible food, old people shuffling about, monotonous, tired, lots of mullets , angry in a despondent kind of way. Really, it was like Devonport. "Our congratulations!" "Everything for Human Happiness." A broader collection of thirtieth annivers...