100 Years Of Propaganda: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly | Hacker News Reader

100 Years Of Propaganda: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

smashingmagazine.com

34 pointsdanh12 comments

I'm really surprised that the author didn't mention the propaganda cartoons that came out of Hollywood during World War II. Pretty much all the great American cartoonists and animation studios produced propaganda films. There's a huge number of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc... cartoons that were made during the war: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bugs+bunny+world...

Also, Dr. Seuss aka Theodor Geisel did a lot of political Cartooning during World War II: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/Frame.htm

Another surprising omission was the "Lord Kitchener Wants You" poster (inspiration for "I Want You For U.S. Army")

There is no doubts about the immorality and emotional deception of these designs; they are still worth mentioning because they were extremely powerful and effective at the time.

There is an odd double-standard when this note is appended to a discussion of Nazis, when there isn't a similar one about the communists. In fact, one of the Nazi posters in question appears to be from an election (the other one is about the military). Compare that to the numerous posters of communists invading countries, defending countries, killing the rich, etc.

It's also too bad the author used the BNP as an example of modern propaganda. Their graphic design is awful, and they're using way too much copy. I just wish there was a recent election in which one-word slogans and iconographic images had been deployed in order to get people emotionally attached to someone...

There is also a double-standard when you append it only to Nazi and Communists discussions.

I was kind of surprised that for more recent stuff, they included some throwaway material that just mimicked old propaganda rather than the well-known image of Obama and HOPE.

Obama's "HOPE" poster seems like a great example.

And you'll find that portrait of Che Guevara on high school and college campuses nationwide on the t-shirts of students who have no idea who he is.

Not to mention on Mike Tyson's flank.

The Imperial War Museum has a great collection of art including a lot of propaganda posters:

http://www.iwmprints.org.uk/

Have people seen the clip of an aged Edward Bernays saying he coined phrase "Public Relations" because the word "propaganda" had acquired negative connotations? Public relations is just propaganda for corporations.

Too bad this article doesn't cover that.

One long documentary that includes that clip is "The Century of Self" by Adam Curtis (search archive.org for higher quality videos) which practically centers around Edward Bernays, the "father of Public Relations".

link: http://www.archive.org/details/AdaCurtisCenturyoftheSelf_0 (part 1 of 4)

It's interesting to consider how propaganda is widely associated with totalitarian regimes. Propaganda is a means of stopping people from thinking in favor of giving them prefabricated conclusions--do only bad ideas truly benefit from propaganda?

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