The first time I ever seen propaganda posters was in my fourth year of secondary school. We were looking at Britain's role and the causes of WW1, these posters have always fascinated me because nothing like that would ever exist this day in age would it? Just imagining walking through the streets as lets say an 18 year old, knowing in the back of your mind that a lot of lads your age were signing up and having to see these posters everywhere. You would have been almost expected to enlist.
Propaganda played a major role in World War 1. 'The Great War' (aptly named until the onset of World War II in 1939) was the first war to target the general populace with government funded propaganda on a massive scale. Propaganda was used in a variety of ways and for different purposes.
The most important purpose for propaganda in Britain was gaining new recruits into the armed forces.
When Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914, their army consisted solely of professionals and volunteers. In contrast the armies of continental Europe were mainly made up of conscripts (conscription is when men reach a certain age they are obliged to do a mandatory service in the armed forces), this meant that although Britain had better trained soldiers, they were relatively small in number and would not last long against the greater numbering forces of the triple alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary). The British government realised this and had to come up with a way to get British men to volunteer to join the army (Conscription was not introduced until January 1916 when the 'Military Service Bill' was passed).
Great Britain now turned to propaganda as their main source of recruitment.
The most famous poster from this era: Lord Herbert Kitchener (commander of the British armies) pointing his finger directly at you. Instilling a sense responsibility in the reader "Your Country Needs YOU"
After initially targeting the honour and patriotism of men, the master minds behind these posters then used different tactics. One such tactic has been referred to as "mobilisation by shame" one example of this is a poster created by Savile Lumley.
This image depicts two young children sitting beside their father asking what he did during the war.
This poster essentially blackmails the reader into enlisting, or suffer the shame of having to admit to his children that he never participated in the 'War to end all Wars'. Would this poster incline you to sign up? If I had read this back in 1915 being the age I am now, this above all the other posters would have persuaded me to enlist. I would not want my future grandchildren to have to admit their grandfather did not fight when everyone else did.
Another dynamic in the recruitment driving propaganda was to use women to great effect. Posters showed women ordering their men into war, making redundant the one thing that might hold back a mans inclination to enlist: his wife and family. Would using women have affected your choices? (If you're a man obviously)
These posters always make me feel a little sad to be honest, knowing that they in some way caused the death of so many young lives is quite harrowing.
Even worse is the fact that a lot of these men would not have realised what they were getting themselves into. Many saw it as a grand adventure, do not forget most of the volunteers would have had working class backgrounds and would never have been overseas. This was an opportunity to see a bit of the world; a chance to have their moment of glory; to win medals and have war stories to tell their grandkids when they get older. Sadly very few of these men would live to tell such tales. How does this make you feel?
Propaganda was not used solely for the military however, a lot was directed towards civilians. One example was to get them to stop wasting food and other vital resources due to rationing.
The above poster is pretty clear in its purpose. It is wanting civilians to alter their dietary habits, if this was to happen now I think I would need to emigrate to a country with less restrictions, as I do love white bread. Could you live without white bread?
The reason the poster says "Save the wheat and help the fleet" is because at the time Britain imported most of its food, mainly from the U.S.A, Germany had U-Boats (Submarines) prowling the Atlantic ocean looking to sink the convoys of merchant ships. At one point Britain only had a few weeks worth of wheat flour in their reserves, so they launched a massive poster campaign to encourage people to eat less bread and not to waste food.
The United States and Great Britain were the only major powers at the time to have small professional armies. All of the other major powers had armies made up of conscripts, meaning they did not need propaganda for military recruitment purposes. However this does not mean propaganda was not used.
Caption translates to: For god, the Fatherland and the King with French translation below also
Propaganda was still required for morale in general, giving the population a reason for fighting, making the sacrifice worth it. The above poster shows a german soldier bayonetting a child, which is a bit much isn't it?
This poster is French in origin and essentially is telling the French people that German soldiers are murdering children. To add more context this was produced at the time when Germany had already invaded Belgium and France was in their sights. I suppose the French government deduced that if the French people thought the Germans were murdering Belgian kids, then the people of France would be spurred on for revenge in a way as Belgium and France are natural allies as they share a common language and ancestry. Of course this is all probably "fake news" if you can call it that, Surely you would think that the general populace would not have believed that all German soldiers were child murderers? However during their occupation of Belgium, German soldiers carried out numerous atrocities on the civilian population which became known as "The rape of Belgium". This is a term that was being used by the propaganda machine in France and Britain at the time, so with that phrase being publicised I suppose German soldiers murdering children would not be so hard to believe. Put yourself in their shoes at the time, would you believe it? Personally I think I would have believed it.
My favourite posters have got to be the ones that use metaphorical imagery. An example is below.
My favourite propaganda poster
The above image has to be my favourite piece of propaganda from the period, specifically for the symbolism involved.
This was produced during Germany's invasion of Belgium. The child represents the small, young nation of Belgium (Belgium had only been an independent nation since 1830) and his small stick is symbolic of its relatively weak military (They had a standing army of just 220,000 men); while the older man with the big stick represents Germany and their daunting armed forces (around 700,000 men, later increased to 3.8 million after mobilisation). You can tell he is Germany due to the fact he has a few links of sausages dangling from his pocket (oh how stereotypical). This whole image depicts Belgium standing up in defiance to Germanys attacks, the fence he is guarding is the border into Belgium. This is a poster produced in Britain, the purpose for it is to garner support and increase morale for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) which was being deployed to Belgium to assist in its defence. Showing how brave the small Belgians were to compel the British to be even braver.
All in all World War 1 served as a precursor for the usage of propaganda during wartime and how effective it can be, In my opinion back then I would say that there was none of the questioning of the government like we have today. With the internet nowadays you can fact check almost anything, back in the early 20th century trying to fact check was a lot harder and would take a long time. What the government said was taken as gospel for most of the population. Also I think you'd have to agree that patriotism was a feeling held by most people back then, so when all of these posters were coming out telling you to not eat this or to not do that for the sake of your country, most people felt it was their responsibility as a citizen to adhere to its advice.
