World War One Poster Analysis

Using five of the sources provided I hope to fully explain the method in which each poster encourages men at this time to join up in the war. And to explain that these examples of propaganda are useful for historians on an international scale.
Source one is a poster portraying a child sitting on her father's lap, and another child that his father’s feet asking her father what he did in the ‘Great War.’
This particular poster encourages men to join the army in four different ways. Firstly, in the poster it is written, “YOU,” in capital letters and underlined, this directly involves everybody who views the poster, making them feel a special part in the war. Number two, the poster depicts a man telling his child about what he did in the Great War, which greatly appeals to men’s sense of pride on a local level. It would have made them want to be in the position of the man

detailing his adventures making his family ‘proud‘ to a certain extent. Thirdly the poster states that the war was ‘Great’ which makes the audience want to feel included in the extravagant event. Then finally, as the man in the poster is still alive, the person looking at the poster will assume that Britain will win the war, and that he will still be alive when the war finishes.
In source three, there is a man in an army uniform pointing at the audience with ‘BRITONS,’ in giant lettering over his head.

The next line is, “wants you, join your country, God save the King.”
By saying “Britons want you,” and pointing at the audience the poster, as I said in my previous statement, involves the person regarding it and makes them feel like it is morally correct and somewhat obligatory in society for them to join, as “Britons”, their fellow citizens want them to join. By saying “Join your country God save the King,” the poster makes the reader feel a certain obligation to join the army as if his country and king want him to. It also provides the man with a reason to go, to save his king and country.
Source four very plainly shows a mother and her two children sitting by the windowsill watching troops walk away with the title, “woman of Britain say go.” This, very simply, makes a man want to join the army because it's a display of how even those close to them know of a certain obligation regarding war effort and how much it would please them. It is a kind of emotional

blackmail.
Source five is a picture of a man riding a horse with the words “forward, forward to victory enlist now.” in bold. The bold text catches the readers eye and the repetition of forward indicates that the will be a success and that victory at the end will be sweet which entices the audience.
Last but not least, source six shows a British troop standing in front of an action of terror in Belgium with the words, “enlist today.” First of all the picture of the mother and child in Belgium walking away from a burning village, is enough for any man to want and help in the war, as they would feel an emotional obligation. Secondly the trooper stands tall, proud and powerful which is a position that the advertisers would want the audience to feel in if they join the army.
The propaganda campaign's of WW1 are typically accepted as the first of their kind. Historians can take a lot of value from examining propaganda from this period. Propaganda can show us how governments portrayed the war effort and the enemy to the public; this is interesting when compared with the facts from other sources of the time. For example, images of soldiers as happy heroes might be contrasted with war poetry and diaries from the trenches. Propaganda also makes use of interesting symbolism to communicate the feeling of the war. Historians may also find it interesting to contrast the efforts being made on either side of the channel, i.e. by soldiers and by those at home. A sense of national identity can be determined from WW1 propaganda, and because of this we can see what people believed they were fighting in the name of “King and Country”. Propaganda from both sides of the war should also be compared; historians can thus consider how similar perspectives on the war are for those occupying non-political positions. Often, the propaganda used to encourage the war effort is very similar on both sides, and shows that on a domestic level, war effects people in the same way regardless of their nationality.