Propaganda, the usage of communication methods to persuade people to agree with a particular view or take a particular action. In World War 1 the Government used propaganda to promote many campaigns. My class mates and I were given five of these campaigns. We were told to choose two of the five campaigns and analyze them. Our options were the; “Save the wheat for our Soldiers,” “Liberty Bonds- Beat back the Hun,” “Liberty Bonds- Statue of Liberty,” “Pledge to Save the Food,” and “Emergency Fleet Corporation” campaigns. Out of these five I decided to choose; “Save the Wheat for Our Soldiers,” and “Pledge to Save the Food.”
Both “Save the Wheat for Our Soldiers,” and “Pledge to Save the Food” had the same propaganda techniques but, I believe the “Save the Wheat for Our Soldiers” was more effective with these techniques and its message. The techniques used were both plain folk and transfer. Plain folk was used by the author putting a small child in the middle of the poster saluting to a bowl of cereal; Transfer was used in a patriotic twist by printing the campaign on a white paper with red and blue writing, also by have the small child saluting a bowl a wheat, in other word say that he will be loyal to the save the wheat pledge.
I see that the “Save the wheat for our Soldiers” campaign is more effective because the image of the little boy grabs people’s attention and its words (“Little Americans. Do Your Bit. Eat Oatmeal- Corn meal mush- Hominy- other corn cereals- and rice with milk. Save the Wheat for our Soldiers. Leave Nothing On Your Plate. ”) encourages people to want to be part of the pledge and save their wheat in order to help feed the soldiers fighting for their country.
