America is in flames. Amidst the horrible conflagration, Soviet soldiers are strangling and beating down our brave men and women who were valiant (or foolish) enough to make one last stand against the Red Menace. Our once-great flag is no longer standing tall, becoming food for the ever-growing fire.
While we never witnessed this terrifying sight, we were always a day away from it -- or so these advertisements, books, and movies would have you believe.
Throughout history, appealing to society's deepest fears has always been the best way to control people, and the easiest way to distribute fear among the populace is through propaganda. Once the Cold War was in full swing and the populace needed to be rallying against the Russians, America promptly tore down its posters of Hitler and Tojo looming over the horizon and replaced them with posters of Stalin and Mao doing the same. Whether it was posted on the streets, broadcast on the radio, shown in theaters, or even displayed on the cutting-edge media called television, the message was the same: "if you don't care about America and do what we say, tomorrow you'll be wearing red and calling each other 'Comrade.'"
In this advertisement, the fear of starting a Communist revolt in your own workplace is used against employers to convince them to buy Scott Towels. The imagery is as plain as day -- a disgruntled employee, fed up with your company's inferior towels, begins pondering the benefits of a Marxist society. Tomorrow, he'll be showing up at work with a hammer and sickle.
I think your intro captures the overall vibe/ pathos of anti-communism propaganda pretty well. I appreciate the fact you posted a link that directs us to other anti-communism articles. I think the imagery depicted in your main propaganda poster merits more analysis based on imagery because it's so intense. I also want to know more about what "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks" means in context of this post.
ReplyDelete~Tylar
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ReplyDeleteI liked your into. I think it definitely introduced readers to the sort of propaganda the U.S. would have used during the cold war.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago in my honors seminar we were actually talking about how America seems to have a new enemy every few years but that the rhetoric they use does not change, instead it just gets recycled. I like that you brought up that point.
Suggestion- I would try to incorporate the photo more into the analysis. I get what the photo is saying but it confused me at first because I saw it as just an add for tissues.
Cool analysis.
-Lindsey Wright
Similarly to Lindsey, we discussed this idea in my Honors Seminar as well. Societies around the world have definitely figured out how to keep their citizens in line: play on their biggest fears. Connecting this concept to the present, who is our enemy of today? The Middle East. And who will it be tomorrow? Who knows. This post was very well written and captured by attention right off the back. That was probably because of your exemplary use of imagery. Best post I've read so far.
ReplyDelete-Ashley McNeill
I think it's kind of sad to look back out things like this happened during the 60s and 70s. The fact that our entire country basically ran on this idea of fear, that if it wasn't American then it was inferior or even evil and that the public more or less embraced these ideas. This advertisement basically sums all of that up and it really shows how at the end of the day emotions can lead to us thinking in irrational ways just like this.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point that fear breeds control. When I was reading the Crucible in school, we discussed how similar the Salem Witch Trials were to the Red Scare. Both feeding off the fear from the people that an outside entity would take over.
ReplyDelete-Michelle Joseph