1.4 TRIBUTE: Iconic Campaign

Propaganda posters were widely used in the 20th century, especially to persuade men to join the army in the first and second world war, and to keep nationalism spirits high. The images were very effective because they were simple with little text and spoke directly to the public by appealing their moral and patriotism.

Nowadays, governments (at least the Dutch) have transferred to commercials to get messages across to the public. However, I think this is quite a shame, because propaganda posters transfer the message in one glance. To revive the use of propaganda posters for national purposes, I designed several posters based on old but iconic posters but with new messages concerning the current COVID-19 situation.

“We Can Do It!”, originally designed to boost female worker moral in an American factory during WWII, now motivates people that we will get through this though times together. Together but from a distance for now.

“Beat Corona” is a poster that shows the importance of the 1.5 meter distance to stop Corona from infecting our society. The poster is based on “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”, a Soviet poster from 1919 to warn for the Bolsheviks.

“Grapperhaus Wants You” is based on “Lord Kitchener Wants You”, a poster with the British secretary of war to recruit for the army, which was imitated by a lot of other countries. Ferd Grapperhaus is the Dutch minister of Justice and Security, for which he has also responsibilities during this crisis. For me, he is one of the most recognisable faces of the parliament, and therefor suitable for a propaganda poster.

“Daddy, what did you do in the COVID-19 pandemic?” tries to speak to the moral of the viewer. Do you want to tell your children that you did not care and were dancing in a nightclub in the future, or do you want to be a hero who stayed at home? The original poster tried to encourage future British fathers to be a heroic fighter and join in the Great War. Although these two messages (staying at home vs. leaving home) are completely opposite, the poster works both ways.

I created all images with an iPad and Procreate. Although I am convinced that we do not always need new imagery, these new technologies are faster and easier than the original pressing and lithographic techniques.