Messages of Political Propaganda in Advertising for Young Children

The definition of propaganda is about spreading information with a cause, whereas advertising is an attempt to influence the buying behaviour of customers or clients using a persuasive message. The similarity of both words is for the cause of spreading, even if it includes engraving the message into their mindset and behaviours.

What Should Young Girls Look Up To?

An average child growing up in the United States sees at least 13k to 30k advertisement on television each year, and yet these numbers does not include the marketing and propaganda content they see via online, prints, or even anywhere they go ( Lapierre, 2017). Images that promote a certain item or message has been surrounding us for centuries, advertisements and propaganda posters included as they were with us even before World War 1.“These were images that gave an intimate glimpse into people’s lives and their dreams and fantasies, just like advertising does now,” quoted co-author Amanda-Jane Doran. In an era before radio and television, the only source of news mostly came from newspapers, magazine and books and that’s where all the images illustrated and photographed could only be printed on.

What most kids grow up on was from what they see and observe as a child, hence the strong part of images and words that are constantly shoved into their faces ever since they were born. The influence of advertisement and propaganda held a part to influence children’s of that era as most children would fantasize about people the person in the poster they see and observe. But this takes a turn on how they portray women in propaganda posters compared to advertising posters. Young boys would be given posters to join the war, embrace their masculinity and hide their tears ad shame, whereas young girls get advertisements that tells them that their either an object for men?

But in propaganda posters, women are portrayed as strong intellectuals and could go further than in a raising a household and doing domestic housework. What are young girls supposed to look up to? The fact that their an object meant to pleasure men or are they members that can help build society independently too? Which one should they portray themselves as when they grow up- that’s the strength of propaganda versus advertising standards of woman.

The Strength of Propaganda Posters

Portrayal of woman through propaganda posters left a strong portrayal of women independency, as the art of the posters are less seductive and revealing. Howard Chandler’s character named Christy was famous for his enlistment posters for the Marine and Navy’s, drawing Christy in the proper stance of Marine and Navy uniforms on her. The poster, having a message of “Gee! I wish I were a man- I’d join the Navy!” conveys a strong message of Females being more empowered that men in general if they weren’t helping out in the war, as even a woman (also known as being portrayed as the weak) could even do it better than them. This also asserted dominance against the two genders empowerment as men was always stereotypically the backbone of the family.

One of the few common themes that was played among political propaganda posters that included woman are how their used to assert their dominance against men and lower their masculinity status, from using children’s to put down men’s ego on not joining the war such as central power’s “Daddy, What Did You Do in the Great War?” made by Savile Lumley from 1914s to using feminist icons such as the iconic Rosie the Riverter’s ‘We Can Do It’ poster from 1970s. These types of themes are suitable for females of all ages, allowing them to see themselves as that aspiring figure one day, whether to empower male and becoming a stronger figure compared to them, breaking the stereotype.

Certain themes that play along female children roles are how their taught to stay home and study, and yet a handful of them manage to graduate out of elementary school (Donson, 2014). Female child employers are also not in favour in the workforce due to them not having as much physical strength compared to males, nevertheless they were also paid less. Young girls were seen to make more sacrifices for their families and countries as the upcoming opportunities for them to go into workforce approaches. Although so, with the growing and posting of political propaganda posters about empowerment of women figures, young girls would look at these propaganda posters, and try to fit their shoes into these posters and hope that they’d grow up as these figures one day; “Undeniably, propaganda alters our value of living. Therefore, we cannot under estimate the propaganda power.” (UKEssays, 2018)

Contrast of Advertising Adverts Compared to Propaganda Posters

In contrast of political propaganda posters where the portrayal of women feel strong and empowered, there’s advertising, where women are often portrayed in domestic roles such as being housewives, babysitters, maids and constantly belittle and seen as nothing more than a wife, or maybe even lower than that.

‘At an early age, men are programmed to desire the Barbie Doll woman’ quoted by Suggett,2019. The portrayal of woman in advertising is far from reality- creating a fake ideal perfect woman body with unrealistic tiny hips to gravity defying breasts; The features of woman in advertising industry sells off unrealistic expectations of what normal humans can ever achieve, in actual model industries and also in artwork posters portrayal of woman. The cliché sexy images of woman in posters and advertisements mainly targets male audiences, but females can’t be forced to stray their eyes away from posters targeted for male audiences, right? This gives the mentality for woman to believe they need to achieve such shape and ideal features to be appreciated by men too, which is unrealistic unless they would need to spend huge amounts of hours in front of their make up table everyday preparing themselves.

Through the eyes of young girls growing up, was this something they should have grown up to be? Do they have to fit all these requirements of having a model figure, and be nothing more than a slave to their husband? Young childrens are easily influenced by what they see on any media platform available as they were one of the major roles on expanding a child’s fantasy of what they dream to be when they grow up. One of the major influences of young girls were the brought up of Barbie advertisements from the start of 1959.

The Barbie dolls was represented as a feminist icons to young girls as she represented more than just being a beauty, but was also an astronaut, an Army medic, a teacher, a fashion model, a girlfriend, and a big sister, all at once. “Even if parents resist gender socialization or refuse to buy Barbies, children will still be exposed to the gendered messages in advertisements (LawMindScience, 2011) ”. Barbie advertisements weren’t just advertising how they were dolls meant for girls to play, they were also asking little girls to fit themselves in her shoes, how they could be a fashion icon, and at the same time have a leading career that isn’t domestic based. This influence opened many young girl’s fantasies, having supported by Mattel’s unlimited fashion line for the Barbie dolls, young girls understood that they can be more than just a domestic figure to the family.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, advertising and political propaganda both bring entirely different meanings but one thing that both words found their similarity is that they both can be an influence. Whether young girls would want to see through the positive light or negative of it is based of a child’s fantasies. A child’s mind is filled with fantasies and wonders and what boosts their creativity fuel was what they see and get influenced by. Although there may be some children’s believing that propaganda or advertising did not influenced them at all, saying that their parent’s helped them, but what motivated their parents? Propaganda and advertising. Although those two words give entirely different views on the same subject, it’s up to what a child would want to fantasize about and let themselves be influence by.