Propaganda in both World War 1 and World war 2 was a very manipulative social advertisement that usually had biased opinions towards or against the enemy powers such as Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. The goal of this propaganda was to promote capitalism and nationalism of the Ally powers. These posters, cartoons or journalism were trying to influence Americans to buy war bonds, ration food, donate, or just simply cause awareness of the “evil” that the american government called communism.
Posters just like the one to the left influenced the public to conserve food and metaphorically compared it to be as valuable as ammunition in the war. This was known as rationing food. The government set quotas on production and price limits on certain food products. The total war effort allowed the american government to take more control of the economy than it had ever done before. After World War 1, the government returned back to a laissez-faire policy (Hands Off business policy). This caused farm production surpluses and price reduction on food. American farmers were hurting even through the flourishing economy of the 1920’s. In the mean time monopolies and big business’, that took advantage of the poor and child labor, were formed because of this “hands off” government policy.
Propaganda continued into the cold war period of time (1945-1990). This was especially true into the 1950’s and 1960’s, because of the red scare and Cuban missile crisis.
In different ways propaganda still exists today in social networks, media outlets, and day to day life. For more on 20th century propaganda visit the link below!