Portfolio Task 1- Image Analysis exercise

The first notable difference between “The Uncle Sam Range” (Schumacher and Ettlinger) and the “Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?” (Lumley) posters is the purpose, the first is an advertisement for a cooking range while the second is a conscription poster.
The main text in Schumacher and Ettlinger’s poster reading “The Uncle Sam Range” is very bold and in a typeface often associated with American colleges and establishments, thus giving an American feel right from the start. This contrasts with the softer and spoken text in Lumley’s poster coming from the young girl within the picture. On top of this it conveys a message asking the father “Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?” “You” being both capitalized and underlined. The point of this, and the poster in general, is to make the father/reader think about their contribution to the Great War. Those that haven’t contributed would feel guilty having not helped, this playing on the posters main action to make the reader feel guilty and as a result sign up for the army.
Though unclear, the purpose of Schumacher and Ettlinger’s image is to sell the Uncle Sam Range by giving the impression that it could cook for the whole world both in terms of quality and quantity. The heavy stars and stripes clad interior of the house adds a sense of patriotism to the image and gives the impression that they are selling much more than a cooking range but in fact they are selling the American Dream and to go without it is to no be truly American. This targets those who feel themselves to be truly American and in general America is very proud of who and what it is, furthermore it portrays wealth and a high level of social status, things desired by most people. This is considerably different to Lumley’s conscription poster, by 1915 those that had intended to join the army probably already had and so it was time to start convincing those that hadn’t. The poster works on the principle of guilt, years later no father would want to say that he paid no contribution to the events of the Great War and regardless of how important his role was.
It should also be noted that the times on the clock in Schumacher and Ettlinger’s poster illustrate America’s first 100 years as a country, marking the event as a birthday and thus a type of celebration. Again this is quite different to Lumley’s guilt trip poster, however if people were to join the Army and fight for their country they could then celebrate when asked of what they had done to benefit the Great War.
Overall it can be said that both posters are very different in terms of both visual style and the message they convey. Furthermore the messages are so different that it makes it hard to make such a direct comparison without questioning the priorities of both posters and arguably both countries. It is safe to say that Lumley’s poster is clearer and portrays its message in a much efficient way, of the two I think it would definitely be the one to have had the most success in achieving what it had set out to do.