15. "That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth"
World War I propanganda seems spare and beautiful when compared to the today's campaigns. And though our marketing and PR machinery has its roots in war propaganda, what bombards us these days has no art.
"That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth", by Joseph Pennell, was one of the more successful Liberty Bonds posters. There were many others (for example, this Pennell poster, and many others), and most of them seem to follow the same pattern. (In fact, that pattern can also be seen in Canadian Victory Bonds posters). Pennell's Liberty poster is better executed than the others: orange and menacing, with a symbolic American monument in peril.
In all these examples, the call to action is simple but the rationale is entirely implicit. The images and text themselves tap deep sentiments, but the audience is left to make the connection between the text and the action. They presume you know what and how, and are mainly concerned with why.
There were posters with complete explication of the bond programs (for example, here and here), but fewer. (There were also posters that demonized the enemy--I'm not saying it was all good)
Benetton, for better or worse, is the only company I can think of that's taken this kind of approach recently. Though in the Benetton case, the call to action--"buy our clothing"--was implicit as well, and the coupling of striking images that referenced important social issues and, well, sweaters was often offensive (in my opinion).
A quote from this short bio of Joseph Pennell says much about difference between propaganda then and today:
Pennell characterized the relationship of government to the arts at the time: "When the United States wished to make public its wants, whether of men or money, it found that art—-as the European countries had found—-was the best medium."
Our propaganda, whether it serves a corporation or government, has design but not art. Oh, and if you're interested, you can look at Pennell's sketches of San Francisco.
