Image Analysis

Schumacher & Ettlinger - New York (1876) The Uncle Sam Range Advertisement

Savile Lumley (1915) Propaganda Poster

Compare and contrast the two images in relation to the following:

a) The choice and organisation of font and style of illustration

b) The purpose and meaning of the image

c) The target / potential audience of the image

d) The social and historical contexts relevant to the production of the image 

Both ‘The Uncle Sam Range’ by Schumacher & Ettlinger and the propaganda poster by Savile Lumley are trying to sell nationalism. The audience for the first image are Americans and for the second Britons.

            The Uncle Sam Range poster is an advert for a cooker containing many symbols of American patriotism, suggesting that with the cooker a certain American lifestyle is purchased also. The theme is a dinner party where all countries of the world are having their food cooked on the cooker. America is feeding the world, which shows its prosperity, as well as containing an underlying message about how versatile and good quality the cooker is. This cooker seems like the cooker a respectable American would buy to show their support and belonging to the country.

            The propaganda poster is aiming to persuade men into joining the army, by making them think about the guilt they will feel in the future, when their children ask them what they did in the war, if they did not contribute. The poster contains a man, with a look of guilt on his face, who won’t look his children in the eyes. He is sat with his daughter on his lap, reading a book about the war and with his son at his feet, playing with toy soldiers. The poster suggests that the war would always be remembered, and would be won by Briton, and afterwards everyone, regardless of whether they fought or not would be rich and okay. This is shown by the comfortable living room setting, with educated children and decent furniture.

            The Uncle Sam Range poster sells nationalism by suggesting American superiority would come with buying one of their cookers. This superiority is established by the ‘Bill of Fairs’, which contains racist food stereotypes for each country which are patronising. For example, China are listed as eating “birds nests, boiled grasshoppers and rats”, suggesting that other countries haven’t progressed very far in 100 years, where America has apparently improved so much. In contrast, the propaganda poster doesn’t need to mention other countries to sell nationalism, instead selling nationalism in the opposite way, suggesting that if you didn’t partake in the war you wouldn’t be superior in a British sense.

The propaganda poster still makes sense to the viewer as much today as it would’ve done when it was created. However, the Uncle Sam Range advert isn’t as easily understandable. At the time and place that the advert was created, its message would have been obvious to the viewer. This message is the celebration of 100 years of American Independence. The poster seems like a strange advert for the cooker, as it isn’t even in the centre of the image, and isn’t an object which you are initially attracted to within the image.

            In each poster, I think the target audience is for men. I believe the propaganda poster is aimed at middle class men, who wouldn’t need to go to war, as they would already be comfortable and protected, whereas lower class men would already be enrolling in the Army for the wage. As the question asked by the child is for ‘Daddy’, and the man is present in the poster, it is obvious this poster is targeting males. For the Uncle Sam Range advert, the audience could either be lower class or middle class, as it is selling a certain lifestyle which the upper class already have, so they wouldn’t need to have this advertised to them. Uncle Sam is placed in the centre of the image, showing that the advert is aimed at men.

            The typography is quite different in each poster, but in both is used to help convey a message. In the propaganda poster, it is the actual wording used, “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” that is most important to the image. This use of speech really gets the viewer thinking, drawing them in as they think about the question, making the poster personal. The fact that ‘you’ is in uppercase and underlined not only makes it stands out and capture the viewers attention, but it is also a direct link to the ‘Briton Needs You’ posters that were out at the same time.

In the Uncle Sam Range poster, it is the choice of font which stands out, as this Wild West style font from the 1700’s is used as another symbol for American patriotism.

            Both posters are trading on each respective countries self importance. The war is regarded as a ‘great’ war, suggesting that Britain won the war, and also adding that being involved would be something to be proud of. There are more examples of this in the advert for the Uncle Sam Range. The poster shows a black slave attending to the range, showing the status of American’s at the type. From the carpet, to the wall decorations and dress of the people, the American flag is proudly placed in the image. There is an eagle, a symbol for America, at the table. Even the children sat around the table have the names of different parts of America on their clothes.