When researching World War photos for this blog I never realized/knew about Propaganda posters and how extensively they had been used throughout WW1 and WW2. After doing more research it seems that Propaganda is a relatively new thing, yes there was persuasion by governments / groups etc but not until the 1600's when the Catholics took it upon themselves to teach their 'beliefs' in non-catholic countries was this term adopted.
Taking a natural progression via a number of communication methods propaganda became very popular in the form of posters. Not just it has to be said in wars or conflicts but politically as well.
Still to this day posters / billboards are used and play a huge role in elections. Of course their importance is somewhat diminished by radio and TV. But even in 2012 USA they are used to shock and scare people see below (courtesy of the Iowa tea party)
I personally feel the greatest use of propaganda through posters was during WW1 & WW2, the huge influence they must have had cannot be underestimated, going by the number of different ones that were produced! Radio was still in its infancy so papers and posters was one of the only was to reach the masses. There were some iconic posters around this time:
Generally war time posters fell into a few different categories, getting people to join the forces, stop people from idle chit chat, saving bonds / food, helping out with labor on the home front.
In your face messages about the perils of not helping out were made clear.
I will add more to this page in the coming weeks.