Creating a World War II Propaganda Poster

During times of war, governments often resort to propaganda. For this new lesson we are going to analyse one of these posters and design your own propaganda poster.

A very interesting story about one of the most famous posters:

First make groups of two (you will work in pairs).
Steps:
1. Choose the poster you are going to analyse and print it.
2. Considering the poster chosen, answer the following questions (write down the answers at the back of the poster):

• Who is the creator of these images?
• Why were they created?
• Who is the target audience?
• What biases are they portraying?
• What is the perspective of the creators of the posters?
• How effective are the posters in persuading someone to think, believe, or act in a certain way about something?

3. Now create your own propaganda poster ( and answer the questions above as well, once again at the back of it).
4. Review your classmates' posts.
5. Thoughtfully respond to your classmates about whether you agree or disagree with their responses to the propaganda posters.


Poster possible topics:
· Enlistment and recruitment (any branch of the armed forces)
· Financing of the war (war bonds/liberty bonds)
· The role of women
· Rationing during the war
· The home front (war production, changes in people’s everyday lives)
· Possible negative effects of Axis victory in the war
· Aiding our allies
· The evils of fascism
· Why we need to fight our enemies

The poster must be drawn on an A-4 sheet of paper and will be graded on your use of color, imagery, and word/phrases included in your poster. Neatness will also factor into your final grade.