Propaganda

Expanding on the idea of art acting as an agent in our societies, Propaganda’s sole purpose is to act upon and influence society through the medium of posters, ads, etc. towards a specific cause or view. I chose to focus on war propaganda as they are the most abundant and personally are more interesting. Racial prejudices and stereotypes run rampant in war propaganda as well as patriotic symbols such as flags. This form of propaganda was used in World War 2 to recruit men into the army and to raise money for the war, appealing to fear and heroic ambition. American posters during this time mainly depicted axis leaders in antagonistic symbols such as snakes, and many appealed to buy war bonds. On the other side the Nazis use propaganda to the furthest extent, molding every form of media to display some message that influenced the German people’s views. Nazi Germany is a very interesting environment in which to examine just how much art influences us. Nazi propaganda was mostly filled with anti-Semitic messages, depiction of Americans as monsters and messages convincing the population of the country’s productiveness and military prowess.