March 19, 2009

Propaganda

Image from here

This poster was one aimed at the American people as a whole and trying to keep them from being swayed by German or Japanese propaganda. It's somewhat insulting to the American people though since it sends the message that they shouldn't be duped by the other sides' propaganda, just their own since that's the one that doesn't harm them and can in fact help them. It's a believable idea since the religions mentioned on the poster were the big three of the time and therefore directly applicable to the vast majority of citizens of the country. The idea of the slogan, that the enemy is trying to play the people against one another, would stay in people's minds but not necessarily the actual word for word slogan. Rather than making the target audience feel manipulated by the poster, it would have made them feel that they were actually being released from the manipulation by the Nazis and Japanese and that the people could then see what the "truth" of the matter really was.