1. Propaganda Posters – In honor of Memorial Day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite propaganda and recruitment posters from the wars of the Twentieth Century. For various reasons these posters have caught my eye over the years and stuck in my memory. Usually it’s a design thing, a unique artistic approach, but some times it’s just the message itself that catches me off guard. And sometimes it’s both!
Aside from being gorgeous, this is an interesting ‘soft’ sell – the horse’s friendship as a reason to join is a unique angle. And a tempting one, I can imagine.
The posters about what you can do to aid war efforts at home have always interested me – they’re frequently things that would be good everyday practices, like joining a car club. Then there are ones that encourage you to eat as much corn as you can, like this:
“Knit Your Bit” is a fantastic slogan:
This one’s got some remarkable detail to it. The text reads “Germany Is The War”.
Finally these ads for those on the supply lines are surprisingly powerful and prideful:
2.Totally Rad (NES) – Here’s the video game equivalent of when the chaperones try to dance with the kids at the prom.
Totally Rad is a 1990 NES game that follows Jake, a surfer and apprentice magician (…) on a quest to save his girlfriend and ultimately save the world. It’s actually a pretty great platformer, on par with Mega Man, but the thing it it’s just so over-“cool”ed. Unapologetically so.
I don’t know anyone that would claim this as “their language”. I remember being put off by the marketed coolness of the game back in the day, and didn’t get the chance to appreciate its actual goodness until much later.
Here’s some gameplay of it – solid game!
3. Ghostbusters Cereal – In the ’80s, your property ain’t good until it’s cereal good. I’m a little confused as to why I as a kid would accept a cereal from a ghost, who are the bad guys in the world of the licensed property that I am engaged with. I also didn’t know the ghost was the one singing the theme song!
4. 1960s Pepsi Ad – I love the style of this spot, but the tone is so…ugh! The girls that girl watchers watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfcqtBeu2hQ
5. Force Majeure Poster – Robert over at Stuff To Blow Your Mind has a series of posts about space music artists which are definitely worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre, which I am! This week he took a look at Tangerine Dream (among others), who I’m a big fan of. He also found this great poster for force majeure.
Also available on cassette, guys.
-ds