Associating negative or fearful images and phrases with an idea is one type of propaganda.
Influencing the beliefs or values of others is the primary purpose of propaganda. Understanding and recognizing propaganda and its uses can be difficult because it requires critical analysis. What may seem obvious after the fact can often actually be misleading. Propaganda posters are one format that has been used throughout history to influence the opinions of groups of people.
What is Propaganda?
While propaganda can come in many forms, its primary goal is to influence the beliefs of a group of people to support a specific idea or person. It is often considered a form of advertising that only gives one side of the story, the side the governing body wants presented. For example, a politician may create a poster claiming that his opponent is lax on gun control laws because the opponent owns guns. This may or may not truly be the case but it encourages people to believe that the fact supports the underlying claim. This form of propaganda is called a logical fallacy.
Who uses Propaganda Posters?
Propaganda posters are used by individuals or groups in effort to dictate specific beliefs or ideas to other groups of people. Governments, organizations and political campaigns are just some of the groups who use propaganda posters. Governments use propaganda to promote support for laws and regulations, or as an effort to enforce certain beliefs. For example, governments may use glittering generality propaganda on posters by associating a new law with a positive image or phrase. Organizations often use propaganda to encourage support for their cause, and scare tactic propaganda is popular for these posters. Political organizations use propaganda throughout campaigns in effort to win elections. Band wagon propaganda and glittering generalities are popular types of propaganda for political propaganda posters to gain support for their candidate.
Types of Propaganda Posters
There are many different types of propaganda, including band wagon, testimonials, scare tactics, logical fallacies and glittering generalities. These are just some of the forms of propaganda that work well on posters because they are effective without the need for explanation. Using celebrity faces on posters as an endorsement of a person, idea or product is testimonial propaganda. In using celebrity testimonial, the hope is that if you like them, you will also agree with the idea being promoted. Scare tactics are advertisements and statements meant to strike fear into people to make them agree, so these posters may have a fearful image in relation to what happens if you do not support the goal of the advertiser. Logical fallacies work to convince audiences of a false conclusion drawn from seemingly logical facts. All of these types work to persuade opinions by misleading the audience.
Examples of Propaganda Posters
From radical groups such as the Nazis in Germany to civil rights groups and political action groups, propaganda posters served and continues to serve as a method of promoting ideas and beliefs. One historical example of posters during WWII was with Uncle Sam pointing with the quote "I Want You for the U.S. Army." This poster is an example of glittering generality, where the image of Uncle Sam seemingly speaking to you is used to encourage enlistment of men into the armed forces, without any real reasoning. Another propaganda poster during this period was of women flexing their muscles, insinuating that they can do the work on the home-front while the men are off at war. This type of poster is a transfer by associating a positive female image with the idea that women can work in factories in a time period when this was discouraged.
