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REBECCA: These are the pictures that slipped into our stream of subconsciousness and stayed there.
Welcome to WatchMojo.com
and today we're counting down our picks
for the top 10 propaganda posters!
For this list, we've looked at propaganda posters
from any country, group, historical event, or political persuasion
and have selected posters based on their impact and historical context.
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It's fair to say the Nazi Party had a penchant for propaganda
and this particular piece has to be one of the heaviest images
of Anti-American-ness ever known.
Drawn by Norwegian cartoonist Harald Damsleth,
“Liberators” shows the United States
as a mechanical, morally-flawed monster
carving a trail of destruction through Europe.
The U.S. is shown as a gun-toting, bomb-dropping, money-grabbing, sex-obsessed race,
set out to fulfill the exact opposite of this poster's title pledge...
this is the American Dream given a nightmarish makeover!
MALE NARRATOR: First to feel the sting of Japanese steel,
are the U.S.S. Oklahoma and Utah.
The latter, a 33-year-old target ship.
REBECCA: If there's one thing that propaganda posters do well, it's racism.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor,
and America's entry into the already raging Second World War,
caricatured Oriental figures could be found all over advertising and everyday life.
This poster and ones like it
were done to dehumanize the Japanese as much as possible
and lessen negative feelings at home as conflict between the two nations increased.
With its buck teeth, big years, exaggerated eyes and poor grammar,
"Open Trap make Happy Jap" is a notorious example of racial dehumanization.
MALE NARRATOR: The once-mighty Arizona now rests on Pearl Harbor's muddy bottom.
A pitiful relic of its former self.
A grim monument to the treachery of Japan.
REBECCA: There are two distinct strategies
when it comes to conveying subliminal messages in a time of conflict –
paint the enemy as evil, or make yourself look righteous.
The makers of "To Defend USSR" chose the latter.
Here, the might of the USSR is presented beyond any doubt.
Adopting a cubist, machine-like look,
the Red Army is presented as seemingly impenetrable.
Projecting strength and nationalism, the image suggests
that the defenders of Mother Russia can only be marching towards victory
and there is no one who can stand in their way.
The message is clear: if you don't buy Liberty Bonds,
you are aiding a monstrous enemy to invade from across the Atlantic.
Created at the height of World War One,
"Beat Back the Hun" is a brutalizing look at the German Army
seen through the eyes of the United States of America.
The poster's striking contrast between dark, dirty skin and red, gleaming blood
is enough to give anyone bad dreams at night...
and it was enough to have many Americans reaching for their purse-strings, pronto!
Sometimes the best way to drum up camaraderie during times of war
is to present that war as realistically as possible.
Designed in 1917 by Maurice Neumont,
but not released until 1918 as German armies were advancing in France,
this stirring image depicts defiance in the face of very real fears in Allied Europe
that opposition forces might be too strong.
However, Allied forces did not give up
and, like the poster soldier, held their ground.
More than a motivational picture,
this French poster helped popularize a mantra used for the remainder of the First World War.
It may, of course, be that at any time
violent and dier events will open.
If so, we shall confront them with fortitude.
REBECCA: Keep calm and milk a meme.
It's not often that a propaganda slogan translates particularly effectively into pop culture,
but in the case of this poster, the switch has been made seamlessly.
Designed as a morale boost for the British public in 1939
as the Second World War loomed ahead,
"Keep Calm" wasn't actually displayed during the conflict itself.
In fact, most of the 2.5 million copies of the poster were pulped by 1940.
When uncovered in the year 2000, however,
the motto was still perfectly reflective of the UK's stereotypical stiff upper lip.
Today is Victory in Europe Day.
Tomorrow will also be Victory in Europe Day.
But let us not forget for a moment
the toils and efforts that lie ahead.
REBECCA: Anything the West can do, the East can do just as well.
As caricatured and exaggerated as anything seen Stateside,
this bloody massacre of a message sees the Chinese public
warned against the Western "Imperialist" way.
A less than friendly U.S. General Douglas MacArthur has U.S. war crimes placed literally into his hands,
while the bombs that have become synonymous with America post-WWII destroy a Chinese factory.
Released at the beginning of the Korean Conflict,
there's nothing 'cold' about this hellish cold war scene.
BRITISH MALE NARRATOR: Ninety years ago, the young men of Britain volunteered en masse
to fight for their country in the First World War.
REBECCA: An atypically complex example of British First World War propaganda,
this poster delivered a powder keg of emotional blackmail and guilt.
Prior to the introduction of conscription in 1916,
the British war effort relied upon volunteers,
supplies, of which, had peaked in 1914.
Devised by Arthur Gunn and artist Savile Lumley,
the poster was aimed at recruiting otherwise uninvolved but able men into the war.
The "Daddy" poster was so effective in fact
that Gunn himself volunteered soon after;
however, Lumley would apparently disown the work following the end of the war.
MALE NARRATOR: No job seems too difficult for them to tackle, or too intricate.
REBECCA: Although only produced for the workforce of one single company,
"Rosie the Riveter" has had us rolling up our sleeves for years.
Jay Howard Miller created the now iconic image,
thought to be based on factory worker Geraldine Hoff,
to inspire the employees at Westinghouse Electric
to keep churning out plastic helmet liners for the U.S. war effort.
Since it's resurfacing in the 1980s,
the image has come to stand for all manner of motivational purposes,
especially and most obviously among feminists and women's groups.
INTERVIEWER: And the women, are they doing all right?
Beyond anything anyone ever dreamed of.
They're doing something in almost every department in the plant.
And I don't mean just clerks and checkers.
REBECCA: Before we unveil our top pick,
here are a few honorable mentions.
We end our list with some full-on, unapologetic tugging
at one nation's patriotic heartstrings!
Although Uncle Sam imagery had been in use since at least 1812,
it was this 1917 poster,
used for the recruitment drive in both the First and Second World Wars,
that made him an icon.
Effectively a remake of an equally iconic British recruitment poster
which featured Lord Kitchener
The James Montgomery Flagg-designed poster is proof to the power of eye contact.
No self-respecting man would take a stare down from Uncle Sam
and turn away from their duties!
For good or bad, he wants YOU.
Do you agree with our list?
Whose propaganda passed us by?
For more subliminally influential top 10s published every day,
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