The purpose of Propaganda is to influence and manipulate a person's opinion, emotions and behaviour. It was used abundantly during 1914, the start of the first world war, to encourage young men to fight for their country. At this time the majority of the public didn't know the horrific effects of war so they were easily persuaded and therefore, most likely lost their lives.
Posters like the one's above would have been scattered in every town and street in 1914 so that any young, naïve men walking past would be encouraged to join the army. At this time propaganda posters would have been drawn and then mass duplicated with the intent to influence as many people as possible.
In addition to the men being targeted to join the war; women were provoked to become nurses and urge their husbands to leave for war. In both of the posters above exclamation marks are used to strengthen/enforce the statement and give it more impact to the person reading them. Furthermore many posters would display giant text to emphasize certain words such as "GO!" in the poster above.
Semiotics is also known as "the science of signs" and is about how something can be displayed one way but interpreted in another. Semiotics can be seen in images by looking further than the image itself. The advertisement below is promoting Heinz Ketchup however instead of a tradition bottle of sauce being used, there is a stack of tomato slices imitating it. This is an example of Semiotics as it shows you the visual image however you can infer that it is also saying that Ketchup is made from real tomatoes.
Simulacra is another type of propaganda that is represented as an imitation of something. Both Semiotics and Simulacra are complex ways of how visual media operates and exist for people who wish to look beyond the image in front of them.
Anti-propaganda involves ways of preventing and opposing propaganda. Peter Kennard is a British, photomontage artist who creates many compelling anti-propaganda posters. He uses his art to enforce ideas of the anti-Vietnam movement and the eradication of any nuclear weapons. As seen in his work below, he often uses the human skeletons to represent death and destruction.
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