Critical Studies Image Analysis Exercise

In this essay I will be exploring to these two images and discussing:

-The choice and organisation of font and style of illustration
-The purpose and meaning of the image
-The target / potential audience of the image
-The social and historical contents relevant to the production of the image

Savile Lumley (1915) 

The Uncle Sam Range (1876)

For their time, these pieces are very conventional as they are soaked in patriotism and both heavily to do with Propaganda. The style of these illustrations are normal for that day and age too. It’s what people of that era would expect to see in such posters.

The 'Uncle Sam’ Range poster is packed full of information. The poster is advertising a cooker. The type used links to the saloon, west, cowboy look which connects gold and freedom and because of this the type connotes power and wealth. In Savile's poster, the italic font used makes you know its being said. It’s very powerful even though its coming from the little girl. The "YOU" relates with the famous Uncle Sam poster where it says 'I want YOU'. It’s a power piece of propaganda as it doesn't seem to relate to the mass, but to an individual in the audience. The meaning of the image it to make men who weren't in the war while it was happening feel ashamed. Its 'post' war as this was made in 1915, only one year in to the world war. The daughter is reading a book; which I can only see as a book of the great war where Briton seized victory of the Hun. A book glorifying the success of victory, and she’s asking 'where were you?'. The father figure is looking into the audience’s eyes in a way which states he wasn’t, and that his children would be ashamed with him for not supporting his country.

In the Uncle Sam Range poster, there are essences of racism. For example, the World sitting opposite Uncle Sam is filling out a list of foods that other countries might eat. England is second down with ‘Roast Beef” but towards the bottom there’s China with food such as ‘Birds Nest’, this would be offensive. Here the advertisement is implying that America is a better country. Then you can see the small black boy working by the oven. Finally the worlds face is on Africa, stating that this world working on this list is African? This of course was in a time where racism was a big issue.

I believe the target audience for Lumley’s poster is teenagers and young men. The Uncle Sam poster is aimed at older men. Uncle Sam in the Mans point of view is him, and the woman serving Sam food is his wife, and the kids round the table are the children, a nice stereotypical middle-class home which, if this man buys the cooker, will have.

Another few things I can find in Lumley’s image are about national symbolism. The red rose curtains, the fleur delis on the sofa and then finally, to me the most obvious symbol, the colours of the children’s clothing. They form the colours of the union Jack. Even though one of these posters is propaganda and one is meant to be an advert they have very similar messages in them which at first aren’t obvious to the naked eye.