Join the Navy, the service for fighting men

In the second of what will hopefully be a series of posts about propaganda we are going to look at some American propaganda. This time the propaganda in question was produced in 1917 so right at the start of US involvement in the conflict. It was created by artist Richard Fayerweather Babcock to encourage people to join the US Navy.

 

 

 

This is a very striking poster lacking in any kind of subtlety whatsoever. It depicts a member of the US Navy riding a torpedo and seemingly having an absolutely brilliant time while doing so! This is conveying a fairly obvious message that to sign up for the war effort is a good thing and if you do you'll have a great time while at war. It is fairly typical of wartime propaganda to ignore the reality and horrors of war in favour of a very positive and rose-tinted version in order to encourage participation.

 

 

The pose of the soldier on the torpedo also evokes comparisons with so many images of those great American heroes cowboys which I'm sure was a deliberate ploy to encourage young American males to sign up and become their generations heroes.

 

 

 

 

The text is also very brash in its message suggesting that if you want to join the war effort then the only sensible option would be to join the Navy as that is the "service for fighting men". This suggests that anyone joining the regular army was not a fighting man and is trying to play on the male ego in order to gain more recruits specifically for the Navy.

 

 

Overall, this is a really interesting piece of propaganda and while it seems fairly amusing to look back at it may very well have been successful in evoking patriotism in young American males in 1917. I am also struck by it's remarkable similarity to this famous scene from the wonderful film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.