Critical Comparitive Analysis

 

The first image 'The Uncle Sam Range' (1876) by Schumacher & Ettlinger uses a gold, Western, cowboy style font. When the gold rush started in the West of America the font and colour from posters promising the 'land of the free' and the 'American dream' typically used this font and colour for example the film 'True Grit' staring John Wayne. Classic. The illustration in this image is exaggerated and crude. The image of the face in the world is racist and misleading as it is meant to be African and because of this it has been drawn to look like a comical characterture. The font in the second image by Savile Lumbley emphasises the YOU! Which is also underlined, this looks like another 'Uncle Sam – I Want You' poster. The point of this is to focus on the audience which would be males within the age of military service. The illustration also depicts the man looking at us as an audience which again puts the focus on the audience, the same technique as the text but an image instead.

Both images existed to persuade the audience. The first image exists as an advertisement for a cooking range. The second image exists to persuade men to join in the First World War effort. The Uncle Sam image is a scene which tries to create and sell a feeling of a middle class, ideal lifestyle of the time; the men being served by a women and a slave, which in that time was not sexist or racist but socially accepted and even 'trendy'. Along with these ideals the pro American patriotic country is branded and in a sense using the country's status to sell the cooking range. The Savile image tries to play on the guilt of the father when asked “what did you do in the Great War” by his daughter and the point being he did nothing and should be ashamed. The whole feeling of the War being glorious and great is highlighted by the son playing with toy soldiers and the daughter reading about the war in her story book suggesting a positive outcome.

The relevance of the clock on the wall in the first image which denotes 1876 at the top and 1776 at the bottom is that America became America in 1776. This poster is also a celebration of American history and you sense a feeling of Schumacher & Ettlinger gloating and dismissing other countries. You can see this in the parchment bill which shows the orders of the country’s for example China ordering birds nest, soil and rat. Ireland ordering raw potatoes. The significance of the second poster is that in 1915 England were fighting the first World War and this was in pre conscripted times so the aim of the poster is to try and enlist men. You can also denote the red rose and fleur' de' lis in the background which suggest patriotism like the first image.