Here we are going to apply rhetorical analysis to decipher anti-Venereal Disease (=STD) poster produced by US government during WWII time.
Being a senior at my last semester of undergraduate, I decided to take courses that most interested me. One of those is AIDS and Society course. At one of these classes we tried to understand the socio-cultural attitude of US citizens towards sexually transmitted disorders (STD) during WWII through anti-STD or, so called, anti- Venereal disease posters. The particular poster you see above really caught my attention, so I decided to apply the knowledge on rhetorical analysis to see what tools of persuasion within this multimodal text did the author/s applied to convey his/her messsage. To summarize, I will analize the poster in term of
- Context
- Purpose
- Audience
and explain the author's design choices (emphasis, contrast, color, organization, alignment, proximity ) on the way.
Context
At the time of WWII there was no internet or smartphones or social media, but there were radios, TV, newspapers and advertisement desks on the streets. So the medium of the poster was print. To draw attention of a wider audience the posters were hanged on information/advertisement desks at hospitals, work places, governmental institutions and just on the walls across streets. People going to or coming from work are most likely to either take a quick glance at it in a rash or stop by and thoroughly look at it. That’s why the items on the poster are quite big. The posters most probably to be hanged in low-income areas, since low-income class are more susceptible for STDs.
As poster was published in US during WWII and content is about sexually transmitted disease, the author/ issuer of this poster is the US government and particularly, US military and public health institutes. The poster would be hanged nearby other posters about WWII news and American patriotism. This might affect the sense of patriotism in people and evoke intention to make a contribution to their country, thereby intensifying the message conveyed by the poster
Purpose
Not going too far from the topic of war, the purpose of the poster is to agitate and somehow educate people about the spread of STD, particularly, syphilis and gonorrhea. In a sense this poster is aimed at associating the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea with women. This can be looked through the central character of the poster, women. Particularly, the poster conveys the message that average simply dressed without a hint on prostitution could be the cause of sexually transmitted diseases. To emphasize the apparent "cleanness" of the women the author dresses the women in white shirt and uses a white background, where white is generally viewed as a sign of cleanness and innocence. The author also emphasizes this message by design choices. He/she emphasizes the message of seemingly clean women by writing “SHE MAY LOOK CLEAN-...” in black bold letters and contrasting to white background. In contrast to the rest of the text, the word “BUT” is in red, which immediately caught the attention of its audience and even more conveys the message that even an average woman may be a threat. The second half of the text emphasizes “SPREAD OF SYPHILIS and GONORRHEA”, which basically the main theme of the poster, by writing it in white big font and contrasting it to the dark blue background. Additionally, in the bottom part of the poster, author also presses on the patriotic feeling of the audience by writing “You can’t beat the Axis if you get VD”, which is contrasted in red.
Audience
The primary audience of the poster is obviously men and particularly the men in military force. This can be seen from the three man in military uniform and suits depicted in the poster. Additionally, text about beating the axis also tells us that. The author makes apparent contrast in size between the "seemingly clean" women and three man on the picture, which shapes the women as a huge thread to men. To narrow down the audience even more, it could be the men of reproductive age as the topic of the poster are venereal disease.
The secondary audience of the poster are women/girls, as they are also walk down the streets and their attention could be caught by the women on the picture. Additional secondary audience are the US government, particularly US military and public health institutes, since they are the stakeholders of the poster.
To see more of anti-VD posters go to: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visualculture/venereal.html
Resources:
Book- Writer/Designer. Chapter 2. Cheryl E Ball.
Artcile- Digital Rhetoric. Eyman, Douglas.
Poster retrieved from- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visualculture/venereal.html
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