Week 9 - Russian Ice Cream Advertisement

This is a white Social Marketing/Advertising Propaganda created by a Russian advertising agency. It is for "Duet" Ice Cream bars and is meant to capture the US market. Though the image is simplistic in style, it could be interpreted in many different ways.

On the surface, this image wants the viewer to transfer the happy concepts of rainbows and the generally positive associations with Obama with the ice cream. Cardstacking is used, only showing postive messages associated with the ice cream. Glittering generalities are used as well with "Flavor of the Week!" "Black in White" and "Chocolate in Vanilla." This could be considered a testimonial of sorts, as it shows Obama sort of giving his endorsement to the product.

The combination of text and image could be considered somewhat racist. This could be interpreted as a snarky Satire of President Obama. The term "Flavor of the Week" is an assertion that has connotations that the propagandist expects you to transfer from the phrase, suggesting that Obama's popularity is a fleeting thing.

Overall, this propaganda could be read on multiple levels, and could definitely be a bit more than just an advertisement for ice cream.

Propaganda Week 8 - "Obama's Olympic Preparations"

This political cartoon shows Obama having run the obstacle course of all the issues he is expected to tackle, and ending up at the Denmark Olympic committee.
He's "been preparing". This cartoon is talking about Obama visiting Denmark to put in a bid for Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics.

This cartoon is primarily a political satire which uses transfer to convey its message. The artist would like the viewer to transfer the ideas associated with the trials of the Olympics onto the trials that are the political issues. The little man at the bottom is asking the other "Did you actually lift the jobs thing?", implying that the issue of jobs in America is a very difficult one.

Week 7 - World War I Propaganda

This image is a white, Social UK propaganda poster from the World War I era. The intended audience is British citizens, especially those in the armed forces.

This propaganda uses appeal to fear to get it's message across, talking about at getting killed at home by a bomb if you don't join the army "at once". Lesser of two evils is used as well, giving the viewer the option of either facing bullets or getting killed by a bomb. The text uses transfer from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" from the noble, martyr character, implying that facing bullets is definitely the better thing to do.

"God Save the King" is an assertion, and a sort of slogan for he British government, making this propaganda white.

Week 6 - French Cell Phone Ad/Propaganda

This week's Propaganda is a White, Social, Marketing/Advertising type propaganda. I assume it is divisive. It is an advertisement for Ovodafone live! service from SFR company. This service allows you to send photos instantly from your cell phone.

This propaganda uses appeal to desire, using a pretty sleeping lady that the man obviously desires, and that the propagandists hope the viewers appreciate as well. The use of this sleeping woman could be considered transfer, hoping the the viewer will transfer the idea of being with a beautiful sleeping woman with the phone service.
It also uses card stacking, telling a sort of half truth about the "harmless fun" of pretending to kiss a sleeping girl on a plane. Most likely, this one of the better outcomes of this situation for the guy. The common person technique is also utilized, as the guy on the plane is more of a normal guy who wants to have a girlfriend that makes his friends envious.
The glittering generality at the end of the ad which states, "SFR. Let's speak better. Let's speak mobile." is a sort of call to action, almost in a bandwagon sort of way.
The intended audience is the French populace of young adults who use technology such as cell phones often.

Week 5 - Soviet Animated Propaganda

This week's propaganda is titled "Black and White" and is an animated Soviet propaganda. The animation shows the mistreatment of African Americans by white Capitalists.

This piece of propaganda is a social engineering type of propaganda. The target audience would be the Soviet populace, and the idea is to use blacks as "scapegoats" to demonize white Americans. It "Pinpoints" white Capitalist Americans as the enemy, showing them mistreating blacks by yelling at them and uses other propaganda techniques to suggest other ill treatment of them. Transfer is widely used, hoping that the soviet people will associate the bad images such as the electric chair with American Capitalists. Cardstacking is used throughout, showing the white Americans as greedy and evil (with a LARGE pineapple for dinner, nice cars, and decidedly corpulent) and the African Americans as oppressed and enslaved (and very sad, getting capital punishment for no apparent reason). No evidence contrary to this is offered, although it is definitely not the actual case by any means.

Propaganda Art - Week 4

This contemporary piece of Propaganda art is a Propaganda Poster from North Korea. It shows North Korean children, each representing a different branch of the North Korean armed forces, destroying the head symbolizing the US army. The text reads: "Playing war by strangling the American pigs is exciting".

The intended audience of this piece is North Korean children, and most likely their parents as well. The message in this piece of propaganda art is that it is fun to "play" war, and exciting to pretend to destroy Americans, so the real thing must be even better. This piece of Propaganda makes use of card-stacking. Only the bad features of the US army is shown, symbolized here as an old ugly head that is breaking apart, and that must be very weak. The children on the other hand are shown as powerful, on a higher plane than the army head (possibly a form of deification) and with dynamic, energetic poses, and smiling faces. It tells a sort of half-truth. The text on the image could also be seen as a "glittering generality", since it has no context and does not show the negative aspects of war such as losses on both sides. There is somewhat of a visual context to the image, but overall this statement evokes feelings and is not factual. Transfer is also employed with the juxtaposition of children and armed forces imagery. The creator of this piece most likely intended for the viewer to associate the innocence of play (using children) with war, making it appear fun and not scary, gory, or any of the other things that war generally entails.

Propaganda - Week 3

Week 3 - This contemporary piece of Propaganda art is a movie poster for the first Spider-Man film. It depicts Spider-Man in the image perched on the American flag with a shot of New York City in the background and a slogan on the bottom that claims, "With great power comes great responsibility."

The intended audience would be movie-goers, American citizens specifically. The message in this piece of propaganda art is that Spider-Man is a upstanding American citizen who must have great power and thus great responsibility according to the slogan. Transfer is also used. The American flag is blatantly obvious, and the creator of this piece wants the viewer to associate the positive stereotypes of the flag with Spider-Man and thus the movie, and go to see it. This piece of Propaganda makes use of a glittering generality with it's use of "With great power comes great responsibility" without context.