POSTERS

Guns, tanks, and bombs were the principal weapons of World War II, but there were other, more subtle forms of warfare as well.

Posters and words waged a constant battle for the hearts and minds of the Allied citizenry just as surely as military weapons engaged the enemy. Persuading the Allied public became a wartime industry, almost as important as the manufacturing of bullets and planes. Governments launched aggressive propaganda campaigns with clearly articulated goals and strategies to galvanize public support, and it recruited some of the nation's foremost artists to wage the war on that front.

The following posters were designed to encourage young people to sign up, to celebrate the greatness of war, and to encourage those left behind on the homefront to do their part to support those fighting abroad.

When looking at the posters, students may wish to consider the following:

Symbolism: using an object to stand for an idea
Caricature: exaggerating a physical feature or habit
Captions and Labels: used for clarity and emphasis
Exaggeration: overstating or magnifying a problem
Satire: pokes fun at a person and / or situation with a hard edge to motivate change
Irony: what is said or shown has a “twist”
Colour: creates the poster's mood