The first image being an advertisement based on the ‘The Uncle Sam Range’ from 1879 in New York, produced in the historical context of the 100th year celebration of Americas independence from 1776-1876, is displaying family life to advertise a cooker, targeting the white middle class who had just gained new money and weren’t highly educated (hint the obvious nature of the illustration). Whereas the other image is in completely different historical context and is a poster produced in WW1 (1915) and was produced as a piece of propaganda by the government to influence men to volunteer for the army as conscription wasn’t yet introduced, similarly aimed at middle class and upper class who were unlikely to volunteer. Although both images were produced having a representation of the family life in the illustration both for very different reasons.
The purpose of image one was to advertise a cooker for the family home from ‘The Uncle Sam Range’. Within the illustration is a lot of symbolic and metaphoric imagery which all display Americanism and America’s greatness as well as superiority in comparison to the rest of the world. We can see this through things such as the eagle, the flag pattern and colours featured as the background, century hall in the window which was the location of the exhibition displaying the 100th celebration of America’s independence, as well as other things. The purpose of this was to show the idealistic situation for an American family to its potential audience in order for them to desire the product which is actually offset in the picture and not the main focus. It almost has the ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ effect as this patriarchal image has the traditional family as the main concentration with the father featured centre of the illustration.
Although the second image has the family featured centred with a main emphasis also being the father, it has a completely different purpose and meaning. This posters purpose was to guilt trip the men of the families that wouldn’t normally volunteer to sign up to the army into doing so. It does this in particular through a similar technique as image one, national symbolism. Featured throughout the illustration are subtle British references such as the Queens soldiers that the boy is playing with, red roses on the curtains, fleur-de-lis on the chair and the colour of the children’s clothes being red, white and blue which is in extreme contrast to his dull dark brown attire. Another technique this poster uses which is different to the advertisement is eye contact. The father’s eye showing shame is in direct contact with the audience which makes it personally directed at whoever is viewing, increasing the effect.
This image is not aggressive even when representing war as it throws a positive light onto it, glorifying the war whilst projecting the future benefits of post-war as he is sat healthy, living an affluent life. It could be said it was also targeting the working class who then could have the potential to earn and have success. This message is also demonstrated through the font as it’s made softer in italic, even when the word ‘YOU’ is underlined and bigger it comes across spoken. It is also organised so it doesn’t disturb the image but sticks to the point as without the reference of the text the picture wouldn’t have an explanation.
However this is quite the opposite of the first image where the text has very little importance in comparison to the illustration. The text which is also featured at the bottom is just a form of branding for the company advertising the cooker and is not explaining the image. However the font does add to the Americanism as the one used is very a traditional, western, saloon style often seen used in America and is often connected with the land of the free and gold. Being big in size and slanted towards the image keeps the illustration the key focus but helps reinforce the patriarchal feel with the ‘U’ of uncle and ‘S’ of Sam in capitals.
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