This propaganda poster is similar to the ones we looked at earlier this year for WWI. Similar to WWI, they are trying to get the people of the United States to do something. Unlike the ones for WWI though, they don't want people to join the war, but rather eat more rationally and follow the war time nutrition plan because food in scarce during WWII. It says that food is a weapon because the more food that a country has, the longer the people of that country can survive. This is true because if the enemy has a lot of weapons such as guns and cannons, but there mine are starving, their men won't be able to fight because they don't have the energy. If they don't have the energy, they won't be able to operation the machinery and therefore all of the guns are useless. I personally don't think that this is the most powerful propaganda poster, because it doesn't show anything dramatic such as what will happen if you waste food or the success you will have, but rather just a plate of food in which someone ate all of their food. This doesn't show the effects of what happens when you finish your food. The only thing good the pictures shows is fairly nice silverware which shows that if you eat all of your food, you will keep some wealth. I do think however that the words are very effective.
I would agree that this is not necessarily the most compelling piece of propaganda put out during the war; however, its message shows how WWII was a total war like none other. There is no obvious connection between military success and eating habits, but this poster does a tremendous job of connecting the two, and making a simple daily action appear vital to the war effort. Like every other poster, the graphic design is perfected to have the right effect, which I can't really describe. But it works.
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