The research also showed that although propaganda can assume a wide variety of forms, including print and motion picture media, one of the most cost-effective and popular approaches used by propagandists in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union was posters because they were inexpensive to produce, easy to transport and provided an enormous "bang for the propaganda buck." Posters during World War II were also shown to be used for a number of purposes, including encouraging Americans to join the armed forces or to work harder in war-related industries and to buy war bonds to directly support the war effort. Other posters were used to promote national security by emphasizing the need for secrecy at all levels while still others were used to encourage people in the United States to grow their own vegetables in victory gardens so the fighting men on the front would have enough to eat in ways that indirectly supported the war effort. Finally, the research showed that many of the propaganda posters of World War II were not subtle but they were effective in mobilizing the resources of the nation in winning a total war that might not have been won otherwise.
Works Cited
Darman, Peter. Posters of World War II: Allied and Axis Propaganda 1939-1945. New York:
Metro Books, 2008.
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