Examining propagandic images from "Graphic Agitation"

A few weeks ago my lecturer Dave was kind enough to lend me both editions of the Graphic Agitation books published by Phaidon, which showcase propaganda of various intentions from the sixties to the nineties.  As I have started looking at propaganda properly now I felt it was about time I finally wrote a bit on it.   There was so much in the first edition alone that this blog post will be on the first book only, and I will write another on the second book.  This book was published in 1995 so focuses on political graphics from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The images in the book cover a range of topics from political to ethical, so here I tried to group them together into subject matter.  All of the images are heavily rooted in visual persuasion, either opposing events and urging for their reversal (nuclear disarment, the Vietnam War, apartheid) or promoting awareness on issues and practises (the AIDS awareness movement, feminism and anti-rape culture).  For the most part all images are white propaganda, i.e. they hide nothing and are open and clear about their message and aims of persuading the public.

"Politics is essentially about power and control, and most of the graphic material in this collection is discussed as part of a struggle for, or against, power." (McQuinton, 1995)

Nuclear Disarment

Fig. 1.1 Humourous advertising was key in removing the opposing power's integrity 

Nuclear disarmament was a huge issue in the sixties and a tough negotiation between the governments of various countries and their respective publics.  Many posters such as Fig. 1.4 gave a clear message about the movement for peace and the impact this would have on nuclear weapons (i.e they would be stopped).  Other works such as the ones shown in Fig.  produced by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in 1991 opposing the Gulf War.  These posters hit at emotions, with one poster showing men in balaclavas engulfed in a radioactive layer suggesting the environmental consequences, and another showing a robot holding a missile with the words '50,000 lives per gallon' on his screen chest.  Others, such as Figs.1.1 use humorous imagery in an attempt to desensitise the situation and strip the authority of some of their emotional control over people.

Fig. 1.2 

Fig. 1.3 Visual puns by Shigeo Fukuda

Visual puns often hint at phallic objects, for example in the poster on the right of Fig. 1.1 (which is aptly titled "The Seducer") and Shigeo Fukuda's sexual/nuclear pun in Figure 1.3 titled "Victory 1945", designed to show Japan's support for the anti-Vietnam war protests.   Fukuda is noted in the text as being an avid user of visual puns and subversive imagery, so I will be looking at his work soon.

Fig.1.4

The continuing use of subject matter (the nuclear missile) showed the collective desire to make the public aware of the issue.  The image of the missile itself is threatening and therefore acts as a call to action for the public to join the disarmament movement.

Ethnical issues

Fig. 2.1 

"The oppression of indigenous peoples in many countries around the world has been an ongoing subject for graphic protest and focus for the past three decades."(p117, McQuinton, 1995) Many people in the Western world underwent a cultural shift in the 1980s-90s where they began to feel a solidarity for those who were living in oppressed countries or were of an ethic origin that had been persecuted.  Some posters urged people to consider the heritage of others  (Fig. 2.1 "You Are On Aboriginal Land"), others present a satirical view on events with an evident distate, such as the board game by Doug Minkler which highlights and pokes fun at the voyage of Columbus which we now know did more harm than good to indigenous peoples.

Fig. 2.2 - Multilayered messaging in GUOPW poster

The poster above for the General Union of Palestinian Women shows a multilayered message about the oppressive systems against women in the country.  The woman's chained handcuffs breaking apart visually state the aims of the Union, which is to liberate women of the chains of Palestinian society.  She wears a hijab which has a mesh wire pattern, implying that the women of the time felt imprisoned by society.  Visual rhetoric translates as "We want to be free."

  Tommi Ungerer's "Black Power, White Power" from 1967 is another example of visual rhetoric being prevalent just through illustration.  The poster has been truncated a little bit, but it is clear that in this piece of work there is no upside or downside.  Rather, the black and white figures feed on one another no matter what way the poster is viewed.  The message is evident without any additional text - racism is a vicious cycle that benefits neither side.  

Fig. 2.3 "Black Power, White Power"

Public health issues

"..the 1990s have been rocked by the continual surfacing of social crises, some of which have been highly explosive.  The effects of the global threat of AIDS have become a haunting spectre, and promise a difficult future…" (p176, McQuinton, 1995)  "Consequently social issues - or the 'values' with which the 1990s define social wellbeing - have become a battle ground.  They rest high on the political agendas of governments; are argued and debated through the media; and have brought renewed interest in the concepts of social responsibility in design and community art."

I found this example in Fig. 3.1 pretty interesting as it links propaganda with a brand identity, very similar to my own plans for my honours project.  At first glance I thought the Death Cigarettes brand was a tongue-in-cheek take on the packing of cigarettes which traditionally carry warnings of the health consequences of cigarettes.  The description in the book however notes that the brand "challenges the lies and hypocrisy of cigarette advertising by projecting a totally "honest" and upfront message.  It represents a new form of anti-smoking message. "  The poster advert makes a powerful dual statement with both the coffin and "Your Name Here".  "The Death message is an obvious distortion of advertising tactics, used to drive home a harrowing message."

Fig. 3.1 Death Cigarettes campaign

Fig. 3.2 AIDS awareness campaign

  This poster for AIDS awareness looks like a fashion or beauty advertisement which draws the gaze in - until the fine print is read.  The image on the left reads: "If this woman had the virus which could lead to AIDS, in a few years she could look like the person over the page." The image on the right: "Worrying isn't it."  This non-visceral method of highlighting the dangers of HIV and how it can go unnoticed raised public awareness in a way that was far more accessible to non-HIV sufferers.   The woman looks like someone you might see on the street, which plants the thought of "it could be me/anyone" and moves away from the stigma of ill/dying people which surrounds AIDS. 

The anti-AIDS/safe sex campaigns were interestingly marketed to different people depending on the country. "..in Africa, heterosexuals are most vulnerable; in northern Europe, gay men.  Tolerance levels differ with regard to 'indecent' imagery, often resulting in the use of visual metaphors…" (p191, McQuinton, 1995) For example, the "Condoman" poster was created for the Aboriginal audience in south Australia, where the cartoony, superhero was illustrated to match the audience's ethnicity and the metaphor could be understood.  Had it been used in the UK or the US, it may have been met with criticism for it's approach. 

Fig. 3.3

Blunt visual rhetoric

Issues surrounding drugs, accidental pregnancies and unethical fashion practise often used quite visceral imagery in order to get the message home to young people who were more inlined to ignore it.  The images in this section do not fall into one particular category, except that they all exhibit visuals that need little text accompaniment yet cause the viewer to re-think an issue.

Fig. 4.1

Anti-pregancy campaigns are almost exclusively aimed at women, while safe sex campaigns centred around the AIDS awareness movement rather than unwanted pregnancies.  This poster by Cramer Saatchi promoted contraception to men with the question: "Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?" This style of rhetoric made men ask themselves if they were being careful enough.

Fig. 4.2

"Skincare by heroin"  - not a message that can be misunderstood!  Facial imagery draws people in on an emotional level and is central in regular skincare adverts.  This subversion of regular advertising culture is shocking and to the point.

Fig. 4.3

This anti-racist advert promoting T-shirts from a fashion line plays with the semiotic sign for binning rubbish.  The figure shown throwing away the swastika sends a clear message to the public, and using fashion as the setting gives anti-racism a fresh platform.

Fig. 4.4

The "40 Dumb Animals" campaign by the Lynx group (founded by the core members of Greenpeace) was aimed at stopping the use of real fur in fashion.  The billboard poster above was designed in conjunction with a cinematic advert, which showed a catwalk show with models dragging fur along the runway, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.  By pointing the finger at those who buy fur ("But only one to wear it") the poster publicly shames the fur trade and its customers.  McQuinton writes (p220, 1995) "The campaign…played a role in damaging the industry; fur shops were boycotted, fur sales plummeted and the British public's attitude towards fur-wearing changed significantly." 

Fig. 4.5

Fig. "An important event that furthered the use of graphic design to address global issues occurred in the early 1980s, when the Japan Graphic Designers Association launched it's poster series 'Hiroshima Appeals'.  It was accompanied by an annual exhibition of posters on peace which has continued ever since, expanding it's message in the 1990s to include another crucial survival issue: the environment." (p85, McQuinton, 1995)  The Hiroshima remembrance campaign takes place yearly, and this poster from 1983 shows the additional element of the environmental disaster an atomic bomb explosion can cause.  Butterflies represent the fragility of the eco-system which is affected by nuclear explosions.  In addition, butterflies are seen as the souls of the living and the dead in Japanese culture, which bring joy and love.  The cultural implications of them burning visually represents the devastation of Hiroshima on the people of Japan.  

Cultural context

"Censorship and levels of tolerance - whether by the ruling party or the public itself - are issues that vary greatly between the countries represented and allow interesting visual comparisons to be made." (p9, McQinton, 1995)
One example I found in the book was the contrast between the suffrage campaigns in the UK and the US in the early 1900s.  In Fig. which is are works by British artists, suffragettes are shown to be women taking action, and then increasingly so  - see "Jump on him, he is only a mere man".  In contrast, the Mucha-like, kind of angelic image shown in Fig. was a American approach to reflect their intentions of a peaceful approach to obtaining a vote for women.  The soft orangey yellow tones and the sun conveniently forming a halo around the beautiful woman's head give a clear message of warmth and anti-agression.  McQuinton writes " …the stylised realism of art nouveau, so prevalent at the time, served to undermine the 'ugly suffragette' theory and keep the tone soft yet persuasive…particularly with the case of American posters, where persuasion often took the form of a 'civilised' appeal to mean for reform and justice.  The British movement, on the other hand, was highly publicised for its aggressive militancy, and consequently its posters were more assertive."(p19, 1995)
This can be seen in  Fig. with vibrant reds and yellows used, which together with a cartoony style present a quite violent illustration.    This idea of Britain being slightly more avant-garde with it's ideas is continued as McQuinton (p9, 1995) writes: "The billboard showing Margaret Thatcher hanging by a noose on page 49 lasted only a few days in Britain, but it is unlikely that it's equivalent would ever have been displayed in America." (p7, 1995) This throws up the aspect of cultural context, which I should mentally flag for later as this will be a useful area of research for both branding and propaganda.  Cultural context is an important question for all designers to ask themselves.

Fig. 5.1

Fig. 5.2

Political campaigns

Fig. 6.1

"Up to the mid 1980s, 'politics' usually inferred party politics.  But with the build-up of 'awareness' activities - including charity rock events such as Live Aid, pressure groups campaigning for new attitudes towards peace and the environment, and style magazines promoting activism and human rights - the term politics has grown more and more to signify popular movements relating to social issues.  This has evolved into the 1990s trend towards 'personal politics', an individual awareness and concern for world problems, and a sense of responsibility to self, friends and family, society and the planet as a whole…" (p7, McQuinton 1995)  Humour and satire featured heavily in this book as many graphic artists chose to get the public on their side with a relatable element rather than a heavy message.  The example in Fig. is a parody of "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil", transformed into "We know! We dare! We do!" to support the election of three candidates to the Hungarian Parliament.  "The candidates strike a pose that is intentionally opposite to the classical three monkeys.  Instead they mime "I hear! I see! I speak!" to accompany the text of the title.  In the foreground there are the symbols as they apply to each candidate: anti-Communism (a muzzled red dog), the withdrawal of Russian troops, and the right way forward to a new future." (p65, McQuinton, 1995)

Fig 6.2 EAT by Tommi Ungerer

"EAT" by Tommi Ungerer is a different kind of political campaign, one that hits out against America's imposing its values to other countries.  The Statue of Liberty is shown being shoved down a person's throat.  The symbolism of the statue and what it stands for is used as a device for a visual rhetoric - "Lady Liberty" is being fed to someone against their will, an ironic juxtaposition of ideas.  The whiteness of the hand and the statue represent the Caucasian identity of America, while the figure whose mouth is being forced open is suggested to be of a different background.  To me there is an underlying suggestion of being force fed and expected to be thankful for it.

Environmental issues

A combination of events from the 1980s - increased solidarity towards third world countries, nuclear accidents such as Tchernobyl and the advent of the greenhouse effect - changed the way people were now viewing environmental.  "This shift in attitude dramatically changed the way that creative artists viewed and handled environmental issues.  No longer considered 'soft subjects' , environmental issues became part of the cutting edge.  Old graphic cliche´s - drawings of cute, cuddly animals and exotic photographs of majestic wildlife - did not completely lose their attraction, but the range of environmental comments, and the visual methods used to convey them, expanded enormously." (p223, McQuinton, 1995)

Fig 7.1 ECOVER campaign

ECOVER created these posters during a street art project, where volunteers created works by "cutting and tearing up redundant advertising posters." This not only created the graphic cliches described above but upheld ECOVER's values of minimising their damage to the environment.  Slogans such as "from your drain to the ocean" visually show that the ingredients used in their products are environment friendly and biodegradable.

Fig. 7.2 

An image of a fish killed by pollution from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Today this would not be so relevant but at the time it was a pressing issue as the impact of the oil spill spread through eco system issues to the seafood economy on the southwest coast of America.  There is small fine print at the bottom and a graph depicting damage, but eve without this the image is clear and quite hard-hitting.

The findings from this book have shown me various techniques used in the practise of white (overt) propaganda, in particular the use of humour to disarm serious topics, manipulation of known visual conventions ("Keep Britain Tidy" and "Skincare by Heroin", for example) and the importance of a cultural context in the effective translation of a visual metaphor.  Next I will be looking at the follow-on to the Graphic Agitation book, which looks at propaganda in the social media age.

References

McQuinton, Liz, 1994. Graphic Agitation: Social and Political Graphics since the Sixties [ London:  Phaidon]

Images

Fig 1.1 Themptander, C, 1981.  Attention! Printed collage, Stockholm

Fig 1.1 (right) Themptander, C, 1984.  The Seducer.  Printed collage, Stockholm

Fig 1.2:  Potter, Keith R and Lyons, Stephen 1990. No Blood For Oil.  Printed poster, United States

Fig 1.2:  (right) Multiple authors, 1990. US Out of The Middle East. Printed poster, United States

Fig 1.3:  Fukuda, Shigeo, 1975. Victory 1945.  Printed poster, Japan

Fig 1.4:  Kennard, Peter, 1979.  Protest and Survive.  Printed poster, United States

Fig 2.1:  Minkler, Doug, 1992. Columbusters.  Printed poster, United States

Fig 2.1:  (right) McMahon, Marie, 1981. You are on aboriginal land.  Printed poster, Canberra, Australia

Fig 2.2:  Mansour, J, 1980. Poster for the General Union of Palestine Women.  Printed poster, Palestine

Fig 3.1:  Unknown, 1991. Death Cigarettes.  Brand identity product line. United Kingdom

Fig 3.2:  Bailey, David, 1989. Magazine ad for the Health Education Authority. Printed magazine advertisement, United Kingdom

Fig 3.3:  Redbax Graphics, 1987. Condoman. Printed poster, Canberra, Australia

Fig 4.1:  Cramer and Saatchi, 1970. Contraception Advertisement for the Health Education Council.  Printed poster, United Kingdom

Fig. 4.2: Yellowhammer agency, 1989. Skincare by Heroin. Printed poster, United Kingdom

Fig 4.3:  Rutschli, P and Blame, Judy, 1992 Keep Britain Tidy.  Photographic advertisement poster, United Kingdom

Figure 4.4:  Bailey, David, 1985.  40 Dumb Animals, Printed poster, United Kingdom

Fig 4.5:  Unknown, 1983.  Hiroshima Appeals, Printed illustration, Japan

Fig 5.1:  Rigby, Reginald, 1913. Suffragettes.  Lithographic print, United Kingdom

Fig 5.1 (right):  Unknown, 1910. Suffragettes on the War Path. Lithographic print, United Kingdom

Fig 5.2:  Boye, B.M, 1913.  Votes for Women. Lithographic illustration, United States

Fig 6.1:  Pocs, Peter, 1990. We know! We dare! We do! Mixed media photography and painting, Hungary

Fig 6.2:  Ungerer, Tommi, 1967.  Black Power, White Power.  Printed lithographic poster, United States

 Figure 7.1:  Gonzalez, Bickel et al, 1992.  Recycled Advertising Street Project.  Mixed media collage and poster, United Kingdom

Figure 7.2:  Akagi, Powell, 1992.  Save San Francisco Bay.  Printed poster, California, United States