World War One: Purpose And Attract The Intended Audience

What is the purpose of this media text, and who is the intended audience? What elements are used in order to achieve this purpose and attract the intended audience?

The purpose of this World War One propaganda poster by the U.S. army is to persuade American civilians to enlist in the military. It aims to create an emotional connection with their adult target audience in order to attain their support and convince them to join the army. Some of the relevant elements that effectively demonstrate the poster’s purpose and target audience are visual elements such as colour and typeface, as well as story elements like a plot. In this poster, green is the most prominent colour; a colour that represents “the devil and his creatures”, a symbol for

Firstly, it uses a gorilla with a grotesque face to symbolise German people, complete with a stereotypical “toothpaste moustache” and a pickelhaube hat. By comparing Germans to wild animals, the poster demonstrates that they are savages who commit heinous acts on innocent people and feed on the fear of others. Furthermore, the Americans are represented by a white human, implying that they are righteous and guiltless. Meanwhile, the poster dehumanises people who are not white American by comparing them to dangerous wild apes. This demonstrates a clear bias towards white people and infers their superiority above all else. Moreover, the gorilla is standing on an American beach holding a dishevelled helpless woman hostage in one arm, as if she was a trophy to him; an object to symbolise success for conquering America. This signifies that Germans are a threat to white womanhood and American civilisation, as they are cruel enough to take everything away from Americans, even their land and their wives. Consequently, this discriminatory propaganda poster distorts America’s perception of Germans and other races, and promotes prejudice towards

The poster was made by an American for the U.S. army. Thus, it is evident that the creator is biassed towards America and their military, and would only depict Americans as heroes for saving their country, while portraying their enemy Germany as the villains. The spread of patriotic propaganda like this poster can introduce more prejudice towards non-Americans. Additionally, this poster includes sexist undertones. There is an illustration of a captive as a fragile and passive lady, with her hands covering her face as if she was crying and afraid. This instils to the audience that women are incapable of fending for themselves and can only cry and beg for a man’s help to be rescued. As a result, it can exacerbate prejudice towards women as well as further encourage patriarchy and gender inequality within society. Moreover, the lady is quite naked, her breasts explicitly revealed. The lady being held hostage by the gorilla alludes to a man’s property being stolen. This exemplifies the idea that women are mere objects for men and it promotes the sexual objectification of women. Therefore, seeing that this poster was made by an American man and contains sexist portrayals of women, it elucidates a clear bias towards white American men while discriminating against Germans and