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Razie Hyria

Professor Zack De Piero

English 15

12 September 2018

The Significance of Text in Political Propaganda Posters

Many times I have caught myself looking at political posters and ignoring the text that's

on it. Often times political posters, or posters in general are made to be bright, flashy, or unique

in some way to grasp someone's attention. Initially, we think that is the most important part of a

poster, but what often gets overlooked is the text written on it truly makes a political poster

powerful. Without the feature of written language, political propaganda posters would not

significantly persuade, inform, or empower its target audiences.

When running for election a candidate tends to use many forms of propaganda such as

posters, slogans, and other media. These forms of propaganda, specifically in posters or slogans,

tend to reference ethos, pathos, or logos when trying to relate to potential voters. In short, they

feature rhetoric, the way we use language and images to persuade (Carroll 3). Rhetoric is

important because as was said in “Backpacks vs Briefcases” “understanding rhetorical is

essential to helping us become informed consumers, but it also helps evaluate the ethics of

messages; how they affect us personally, and how they affect society.” (Carroll 3). Carroll

basically means it is important to analyze what makes certain, in this case propaganda, so

powerful because then we can see what its intention is, and thus predict its intended impact.

Furthermore, you’ll often find rhetoric to be apart of a certain genres conventions. Think of
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conventions as “the ingredients of a cake”, they make something what it is. So it would make

sense how often political propaganda uses rhetoric for its intended goals.

In 2008, President Obama’s “Hope” poster took that years election by storm, and is still

arguably one of the 2000’s most influential and popular political posters. Apparently, “by

October 2008, Fairey and Sergeant claimed to have printed 300,000 posters (with less than 2,000

sold and the rest given away or displayed) and 1,000,000 stickers” (Aaron Ben). But, it’s fair to

say that it would not have been as popular as it was if

it had not been for that simple four letter word:

“hope”. The posters audience was that of voters

across the United States, after all, Obama was running

for president and needed a high voter turnout in his

favor. Thus, Shepard Fairey was motivated in favor of

Obama and created the “Hope” Poster. It featured

some of the usual conventions of political posters,

such as: the political figure, implemented in a political

context with political motivations, a physical copy,

and most importantly the text. If Fairey had not put that four letter in front of Obama then it

would have just been a pretty poster. It would not have purpose or embody what obama stood

for, therefore it would not have been able to gain popularity as it did, and thus less exposure to

potential voters decreasing its likelihood to persuade. But, Fairey took into account what

Obama's stood for to the people of the nation: he was a beacon of hope. For African Americans,
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and those heavily impacted by the recent recession. Some would even argue that clever

placement of “Hope” is what really drove Obama into winning the 44th Presidential election.

A lot of times, especially older forms of political propaganda, feature more cartoon like

images, followed with heavier use of text. I’ve noticed a

pattern with older propaganda, and newer propaganda. Newer

propaganda has shifted its tone and put more emphasis on

less words to drive the purpose of a piece forward. But,

looking at a mock version of older propaganda, it’s

noticeable it does not follow the exact conventions of the

previous Obama piece. This piece does not have the political

figure included the picture, but instead is using an image as a

metaphor for the point it's attempting to convey, and of

course significantly more text is featured. This is a perfect example of how the lack of text could

significantly hinder a posters ability to inform. This posters purpose is to “call for Americans to

start working together instead of arguing. The rancor in Washington is slowing our progress to a

standstill.” (outta) This piece has a much more aggressive tone especially when compared to

Obama's much more gentle tone. It’s obvious through the bold and red text. Removing the words

“conservatives” and “liberals” alone would completely ruin the message it was trying to convey

and make its intended purpose ineffective. It’s intended audience would not know they were the

intended audience, nor would the piece be considered political since its two textual references to

the conventions of something political would be lacking. Thus the piece would be more broad in

informing the “roughly 40,000 people.” who noticed it. (Outta)

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Lastly,

another Shepard

Fairey piece. The

context of this

piece is very

important, so it is

important to know

it was released in 2017, aka, the Trump Era. The tone of this piece is very empowering, It's

obvious that it was intended to let the audience feel something. With chosen words like “ greater

than fear”, “dignity”, and “protect each other”. It also gives the audience a sense of unity with

the repeated use of the line “We the people”. Of course, the intended audience is towards

minorities and the general united states population to stick together as somebody's (Trumps)

political reign passes. This post is similar to both previous pieces in its conventions, because like

Obama's piece, it features figures, but like the Disunity piece they're not political figures. It also

features more usage of text similar to the disunity piece, But the word choice is again a clever

play like Obama's because it directly references the constitution with “We the people”, a direct

political connection. The purpose of this piece is to link, or bring together the nation in what

many view as dark times. It does so by connecting powerful text to images. If the text used were

to be different, or non existent, again the message would become unclear or altered. Text on

political posters drives the argument and makes it clear what the creator of the piece intended to

do.
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I conclude Political propaganda posters come in different forms, with different agendas

that stand for different groups of people with an even more diverse intended audience. They have

conventions that consist of ethos,logos, and/or pathos. Each used simultaneously or individually

to accurately persuade, inform, or empower. Even if we focus on their physical properties its

noted that not all of them are layered with text, or have the most vivid eye catching background,

sometimes all it takes is one powerful word like Obama's “hope” poster. But as powerful and

useful they may be, they come with some setbacks. Unfortunately some of a posters biggest

constraints are its inability to reach people, considering its a physical object and it is usually seen

in person, there's no guarantee your audience will encounter it unless there are many of a said

poster printed, and accurately promoted. Regardless, political posters will continue to exist as

long as somebody has some political propaganda to spread.

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Works Cited

1. Arnon, Ben. “How the Obama ‘Hope’ Poster Reached a Tipping Point and Became a

Cultural Phenomenon: An Interview With the Artist Shepard Fairey.” The Huffington

Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017,

www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-arnon/how-the-obama-hope-poster_b_133874.html.

2. Carroll, Laura Bolin. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis.”

Writing Spaces, Writing Spaces, 2010, ​www.writingspaces.org​.

3. Dimock, Michael. “How America Changed During Barack Obama's Presidency.” Pew

Research Center, Pew Research Center, 18 Sept. 2018,

www.pewresearch.org/2017/01/10/how-america-changed-during-barack-obamas-preside

ncy/​.

4. Outta Context. “We're Losing Our Competitive Edge.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 5 July 2010,

www.flickr.com/photos/outtacontext/4764160036/in/album-72157624426458536/​.

5. Wells, Carol A. “Poster Politics: Can Art Influence Elections?” CNN, Cable News

Network, 11 Nov. 2016,

www.cnn.com/style/article/political-posters-oped/index.html?gallery=%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.c

om%2f Connect%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F161101174626-electoral-posters-occupy.jpg.