WWI Poster Analysis

When I think of propaganda, I think of media used by the governments to manipulate citizens in WWI and WWII. If I had to define it, I would call it: "media used to manipulate the masses."

According to Dictionary.com, propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, or nation.

I was given a link to these three images.

The first of these images is of a beautiful nurse with one hand reached out, as if she is calling to the reader. The nurse is in all white, and looks almost holy. Her other hand is wrapped gently around a young girl with a respectable green dress. Both appear solemn. A red cross in the sky is outlined with light, drawing the eye. The caption on the bottom reads: "Our Greatest Mother: Join!" After all this is seen, the viewer starts to notice the background. On a dark, shadow-covered mountain, there seems to be war and conflict. It is difficult to make out, but there are definitely bare chests, running horses, and torches. The edges of a town can be seen in the valley in the distance.
The author is trying to convince all women viewing this poster to join the Red Cross. The poster states this explicitly. However, besides just telling the viewer its intent, it tries to subliminally convince her. The outreached hand is inviting. The pure, white outfit, the serious facial expressions, and the glowing cross allude to religion and holiness, which is juxtaposed with the chaos seen in the back. The artist hopes women, especially mothers, see this and become compelled to be as pure and familial as the woman in the picture in order to try to combat their conflict-ridden lives in the midst of a war.
Younger others are the target of this poster. The model woman in the picture is glowing, and seems to be a mother caring excellently for her child. Also, the caption calls her "Our Greatest Mother."

The next image is of a slender, smiling woman, also in a nurse's clothing. She stands confidently in the frame of a golden-yellow door she has pushed open that reads "Opportunity" in red. She also holds a rolled-up piece of paper, which makes her seem smart and accomplished. The heading reads, "Be a Trained Nurse" in red, as well. The room she is entering is yellow. Behind her is a blue, cloudless sky, and what might be a red brick hospital on a grassy lawn. Additionally, a white box filled with information persuading the reader to be a nurse, like the salary ($25.00 a month), and promises of free books, uniforms, and "unlimited opportunities."
As the door reading "Opportunity" leads to a golden room, the artist hopes the viewer will become a nurse to find a golden opportunity. The author also wanted to make the nurse seem confident and surrounded by intelligence to attract young women to the profession.
From the box of text mentioning the required amount of education and the young, model woman in the picture, it can be ascertained that the target of this poster is young women out of college or high school who would be useful as nurses.

The third image is of a female switchboard operator. She wears a dark, professional suit, a headset, and is busy at the task at hand. At the bottom, it reads "Back our girls over there- United War Work Campaign" in dark blue. A navy triangular logo in the bottom-right has the acronym "Y.W.C.A.", which is the female counterpart to the Y.M.C.A., the Young Men's Christian Association. The glass doors behind the woman reveal men and horses marching by in front of a yellow sky. She seems admirable, because she is dedicated to helping the war effort, even though she is a woman and cannot physically fight.
The allusion to war and the ominous sky are meant to concern the viewer. However, the hardworking switchboard operator provides an alternative to the fear the image provokes. The artists wants to feed off of the helplessness that women uninvolved in the war effort may feel and use this to convince them to become switchboard operators. The words "Back our girls over there" also try to make the viewer feel guilty, as if not becoming switchboard operators would be leaving fellow women without needed help. The familiar term "our" additionally makes the viewer feel more connected to the model woman, more responsible for her fate.
Since this poster is sponsored by Y.W.C.A., its ideal target is young, Christian women. The model woman is young and white, and the artists wants to get similar women to help in the war effort.

I am not comfortable with the idea of the federal government spending tax dollars to create a propaganda campaign to convince me of something. It is similar to advertising in that I would be subliminally influenced, but with advertisements, I know that the source is biased to a particular source and wants me to buy a particular product. There is an unbalanced power dynamic between the citizen viewer and the advertiser when the advertiser is the government. Then, there is also the issue of the taxes I payed being used to convince me of something I did not asked to be convinced to do.

It was probably necessary for the government to invest in propaganda posters during WWI because they were desperate. From these images, it is evident that they needed help with the war effort, so much so that they wanted help from women to win. A need that strong allows morals to be cast aside temporarily so that the need may be met. The government manipulated the people because otherwise, they feared, they would lose.