I have always enjoyed the study of propaganda. It’s amazing to me how the public opinion of an entire country can be changed simply by mass media. It’s also very scary!
Propaganda, like most advertisements, relies on mental shortcuts. Take, for example, the transfer technique, whereby “…the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us accept.” Any cartoon or poster with Uncle Sam uses this technique.
The IPA (Institute for Propaganda Analysis) grouped these methods into seven categories during the 1930’s:
Name-calling
Glittering generalities
Transfer
Testimonial
Plain folks
Card stacking
Bandwagon
This site has more about each of these if you’re interested.
I learned about propaganda in school, and I hope that critical thinking is still taught – that is, methods of analyzing propaganda and advertisements. There are many examples in history that the government can use propaganda to their detrimental advantage, and critical analysis is one way to avoid this.
Following are three posters I found to be very interesting. All three are from WWII era.
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