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Apr 8, 2019
1 min

Dam Propaganda

The public is bombarded relentlessly with propaganda (good and bad). During the 1930s, when infrastructure and jobs were integral concerns, public works construction projects, engaged by totalitarian and democracies alike, were profound propaganda and agitprop opportunities. The use of tropes in these pieces of 1930s propaganda were often the same regardless of whoever was running the government. Here we have FDR, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler digging holes

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Mar 29, 2019
1 min

Game of Flags: American Flag Propaganda

Poor Old Glory has been a staple of propaganda posters for as long as anyone (well, anyone standing around me at the moment) can recall. American Flag propaganda is having its symbolic moment again, brought back as the object of hatred in anti-American propaganda in a certain small nation dictated by a certain Glorious Leader. In February 2013, NPR ran a story by Scott Neuman that begins: “Ahead of North Korea’s latest nuclear test, the country launched a preemptive barrage o

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Sep 10, 2018
5 min

On Lies And Propaganda

I would love to have seen an interview with the “founder” of public relations and “spin” in the United States, Edward L. Bernays, and the Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment, Joseph Goebbels, perhaps moderated by Rudolph “Truth is Not Truth” Giuliani. Could you just imagine? It might go something like this. Giuliani: Its great to have you two back from the dead if only to clarify the role of propaganda in the contemporary world. Herr Goebbels, I believe that everyon

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Jun 20, 2018
2 min

The Politics of Confusion Still Works

The techniques of disruption are not new to the Putin and Trump regimes. Soviet propaganda of the postwar years turned its media towards the war weary German’s to persuade the majority in the Western sector to favor the East in the hot-cold war that was simmering between Western and Soviet powers. “Their main purpose was to confuse the majority with contradictory stories that will be repeated here and there until people do not know what the truth is.” Sound familiar? “They ai

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Mar 16, 2017
2 min

3D Cultural Revolution Posters

Mao Zedong mementos that were issued to commemorate significant developments in political and economic culture have a curiously benign sensibility; some are almost childlike in their execution. The hand-painted faces of Mao and the other characters, done in primary colors and then baked with a shiny glaze, appear like naïve (though political) “China dolls.” Chinese Communist graphic images were rendered in Soviet-style Socialist Realism, but—unlike the solemn Stalinist model—

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Nov 5, 2016
2 min

The Contentious Visual History of Daylight Savings Time

Ah, Daylight Savings Time. Those of us who spend our days fantasizing about a few more hours of sleep rejoice when it comes to an end—tomorrow, by the way. The tradition is arguably outdated, sensible, perhaps, for a pre-electricity world and probably not excellent for your health if you’re a 9-to-5er. As many are well aware, Benjamin Franklin is generally considered the first to propose Daylight Savings Time in a series of letters and essays, including one to the Journal de

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Oct 10, 2016
1 min

What This Country Needs Is A Good Art Director

What the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, to us) needs is not a nuclear weapon, but a bunch of good designers and art directors, notably for its propaganda export magazine, Korea. It follows the same principles as USSR In Construction, Soviet Union magazine and China Pictorial magazine. Make an English (and other) language vehicle for spreading the good word(s) and pictures about these workers’ paradises. Granted, it’s difficult to find Western-style design

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May 11, 2016
1 min

RCA Victor’s Victory Lap

October 1940, 14 months before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the RCA Victor Company instituted a company-wide campaign that said, “With RCA Victor, National Defense comes first. By comparison we hold nothing else important.” The idea behind the “Beat the Promise” campaign was to raise production levels beyond the pledge made by the company. Although the patriotic campaign began before the actual war was declared, it was in place after the declaration. Scores of posters

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Nov 20, 2015
2 min

Candies Against the Axis of Evil

If you were a child in France and received these contraband boxes of candy, you were doing your part to end the Nazi occupation. The treats were included to make certain the next generation was opposed to the Axis and all it stood for. It is hard to determine where this is going and who gets what from this text on the back of the box, but here is a loose translation: GIFTS! … You will be among the winners and will receive a superb gift if you send us the entire collection of

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Aug 10, 2015
3 min

Social Ideals and Social Realism, Gellert Style

This rare booklet published by the International Workers Order excerpts portions of a 1942 speech by FDR’s vice president, one-time presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace. The poet Carl Sandburg wrote in the foreword that in the speech the answer to the question of whether democracy and freedom can prevail in the modern world devastated by a world war (two years from its finale): “As human utterance, his speech transcends partisan causes and petty ambitions. As a speech, it

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Jan 7, 2015
5 min

Little Red Books Take Manhattan

Relive graphic design of the 1900s with 20th Century Design by Tony Seddon, an exploration of the graphic style throughout the decades of the 1900s. “We hail from all corners of the country and have joined together for a common revolutionary objective. Our cadres must show concern for every soldier, and all people in the revolutionary ranks must care for each other, must love and help each other.” —Mao Zedong, 1944 The most-read book in the history of the world could very we

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Jun 20, 2014
2 min

Weekend Heller: This Means War!

War and Propaganda 1914/1918 World War I started in August 1914. No one anticipated that the horrific combat operations would last for four years and kill 17 million. A “new weapon” in warfare, the propaganda efforts of the participating nations are one cause of the war’s unexpected intensity. Against the background of the research into mass psychology taking place at the same time, they exploited the arsenal of the mass media and tested innovative propaganda strategies in th

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Jul 24, 2013
1 min

Split Personality Fascism

Heroic and aggressive gestures are often one and the same. Heroes are known to be an aggressive lot — especially if they are representing a cause. This cover of Gioventu Fascista, the journal of Mussolini’s Italian Fascist youth organization, was later known for his highly stylized, art deco depictions of the “new youth.” But during the early years of Fascism, in this instance “Anno I” of the Fascist era, it was a magazine more interested in promoting overt heroics in the nam

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Jan 10, 2013
2 min

What Is Propaganda – Part 2?

Back in the 1940s, Donald Duck, quoted in a GI instructional manual, declared “Propaganda” revolved around ideas of communications control. These notions were put forth by master media manipulator (the Karl Rove of his day) Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment: “I think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play” and “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” The precepts of

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Oct 29, 2012
1 min

If You Were a German Girl in 1939

If you were a German teenage girl in 1939, you would be a subscriber to Das Deutsche Mädel, the monthly journal of the “League of German Girls” (BDM or Bund Deutsche Mädel) under the auspices of the Hitler Youth (see more issues here). Three sections of the BDM accommodated girls from 10 to 21 years old, as long as the blood-line was free of any racial or ethnic impurities. Other than Nazi doctrine, the BDM was something like the Girl Scouts. Well, a Girl Scouts that was cond

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Oct 19, 2012
1 min

Teach Their Children Well

In 1937, the Italian dicatotor Benito Mussolini embarked upon a colonizing war that spread over North and East Africa. Italian forces reconquered Libya and Eritrea and occupied Somalia, subjecting the local populations to massacres and other atrocities. Neutralizing the indigenous people was the job of the army. But since Mussolini claimed to be a liberator of Islam, this image had to be impressed on his own countrymen too. Back home, youngsters in state schools were brainwas

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Jul 19, 2012
1 min

Brave New World Revisited Once More for Good Measure

Aldous Huxley’s 1958 Brave New World Revisited is arguably one of the most prescient cautionary books on the present and future of propaganda and manipulation—if also an unintended handbook for some on how to manipulate our minds. I wrote about and quoted from it over a year ago, here. But now that the campaign season is here, it may be sobering to re-read some passages from this blueprint for how media can bypass our rational defenses, sneak up and infect our thinking. For m

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Jan 26, 2012
4 min

State of Deception

The People Vote Slate 1, National Socialists—1932—Willi Engelhardt, artist. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. What is the role of the printed word and image in collectively inciting societies to brand certain members and groups as evil, and to convince the citizenry to condone—if not incite—murder? During a recent visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, I was reeducated in the power of branding—espec

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Nov 18, 2011
3 min

What Is Propaganda?

Do you know the origins of propaganada? There was the propagation of the faith of the Catholic Church: The origin of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda has passed through two distinct periods: The first period is that of the cardinalitial commission de propaganda fide (before it had been constituted a definite pontifical department or ministry). This lasted from the time of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-85) to 1622, when Gregory XV established the congregation properly so-called

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Oct 20, 2011
1 min

Symbols Don’t Stop Violence

photo: flickr member junkbyjo Today is apparently Spirit Day in the gay community, during which we’re all supposed to have a little pep rally and wear purple to show our solidarity against bullying. I’m not wearing purple. American culture has become over-saturated with meaningless symbols like this purple t-shirt affectation, “donating” our Facebook profiles against hunger for a day, “Showing our support” by adding a little bit of flash to our Twitter icons. Education and tr

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Dam Propaganda

Game of Flags: American Flag Propaganda

On Lies And Propaganda

The Politics of Confusion Still Works

3D Cultural Revolution Posters

The Contentious Visual History of Daylight Savings Time

What This Country Needs Is A Good Art Director

RCA Victor’s Victory Lap

Candies Against the Axis of Evil

Social Ideals and Social Realism, Gellert Style

Little Red Books Take Manhattan

Weekend Heller: This Means War!

Split Personality Fascism

What Is Propaganda – Part 2?

If You Were a German Girl in 1939

Teach Their Children Well

Brave New World Revisited Once More for Good Measure

State of Deception

What Is Propaganda?

Symbols Don’t Stop Violence

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