Monday, January 21, 2008

Rosie the Riveter - ads for war

All the day long,
Whether rain or shine,
She's a part of the assembly line.
She's making history,
Working for victory,
Rosie brrrrrrrrrrrrrr the Riveter.


You usually seek positive things on TV. I mean it's something, that stops my chanel fast forwarding.

Few days back, I stopped at this utterly positive japanese, who was gesturing the pleasure of seeing the morning, and he was gesturing and smiling either due to his bad english or huge enthusiasm. Either way, he was nice, I liked his smile. Then he remembered he had a sister, and a mother, both dead. They were both killed, when he was six. His face broke into pieces, as he was trying to get a grip. Well, guess the time, guess the place.

I will give you a hint - after the fall of Berlin, after the 7th war loan.

Now about the war loans, or bonds, there are a lot of resources, all of them with something to analyze, or think over. All of them gather around one thought:

"Never before in history has so much of a product been sold in so short a time"

How about that?

180 million in advertising, gave back 156 billion of dollars. In a blink of an eye. If you squint for three years, that is.

"no promotional campaign, commercial, governmental, or Goebbel's has ever spread its basic message so broadly, so quickly." (Samuel, p.26.) quote from Brief History of World War Two Advertising Campaigns

You see, Advertising Campaigns are usually boring. This one is not.

Back then, the ads were mostly printed, either newspaper, or poster ads, the high tech equivalent were the radio ads. One of the radio hits, was Rosie the Riveter, hence - the topic. If you find it, you will probably like it, at least I did.

Let's look at the slogans. All 119 of them.See above, printed ads.

I usually drop all of them in a box, and see which words appear most. Apart from war and bonds and obviously others, bare speach necessities:

"you",
"your",
"buy",
"give","help",
"our","U.S.","do"
"today","chrismas","back",
"will","win","victory" ...

Least information we get from - "Give Them Bonds"
Most - "Bill's quarters will save 2000 lives"
Maybe with catching up - "It's his [yen] against your Dollars!".

And the whole mobilization campaign, which is different than bond campaings, could be summarised between those:
"Brighten His Christmas - Send Your Gifts Early", and
"Help Him When You Shop".

If you think that motivation is a line of Morale on the left, and Profit on the right, with Recognition and Influence in between, then you will see that all of them, slogans, are spread between both ends and that made 85 million americans buy. Along with Rosie, the Riveter. And Christmas, which back then, and now, sells best.

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