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from volunteering to conscription
15
At that time the posters were probably the most effective means of
communicating with a public that had not yet experienced radio broadcasts nor
could afford to regularly buy a newspaper. The earliest posters produced by the
Publications Sub-Committee of the PRC were quite simple,based on the decision
that elaborate pictorial posters like those used for advertising consumer goods
were unnecessary. Whilst initially the posters played on a sense of patriotism,
duty and pride,as time wore on they exploited feelings of fear and guilt.
As well as drawing on a sense of duty,to King,Country and Empire,other
posters called on a duty to friends or family. These appealed directly to the men
they wanted to enlist,such as
‘Daddy,what didYOU do in the GreatWar?’
,
or
to members of their family who might persuade male relatives to sign up;see
‘Women of Britain say –“Go!”’
.Some depicted idealised images of ‘Country’,as in
‘Your Country’s Call’,
in which a kilted soldier points towards what appears to be
an idyllic British village.Posters specific to all the home nations were produced.
Some promoted the war as an opportunity to travel and experience a sense
of adventure and in
‘There’s room for you’
,the potential recruit is beckoned
towards a waiting train by his smiling comrades.The sense of experiencing this
adventure along with your‘pals’drew on a sense of comradeship,heavily tied
in with the recruitment of ‘Pals Battalions’,where large groups of young men
signed up together.
In addition to recruiting men for theArmed Forces,some posters encouraged
the rest of the population to ensure that they too were contributing to the war
effort in some way;
‘We’re both needed to serve the guns’
illustrates the heavy
dependence of theArmy on the efforts of munitions workers,whilst other posters
appealed directly to women to do their bit in this area.
Some posters used anti-German propaganda to persuade men to enlist.
Initially used to justify the war because of Germany’s trampling of Belgian
neutrality,messages became darker as the war progressed – focussing on specific
events such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the bombing of Scarborough.
Such posters played very strongly on fear of what would happen should
individuals fail to give themselves up for the war effort.