Card Stacking
By: Harry Shin
This navy-recruiting poster during the First World War benefits from perfectly adopting a propaganda technique; card stacking. The biggest words on this poster are, “A Wonderful Opportunity for YOU”. The significance of this short phrase is that, even though it is obvious that war is a place where millions of people die, this poster makes the war seem like a holiday trip, supported by a young man in a navy suit, holding a suitcase with a huge smile on his face, and the ships in the background, which emphasises the point that he is going on a holiday. The technique, card stacking, makes it look like as if the navy is offering the one-time opportunity for young men to travel around the world where they can never otherwise visit. However, the real purpose of this poster is that all young men should be desperate to join the navy by emphasising how they can go on ships and travel around the world, using a virtue word like “wonderful”, but repressing the fact that they are actually going to war and most likely to be killed. Therefore, the phrase should actually say, “A Wonderful Opportunity For YOU to Die”. Additionally, this poster uses other propaganda techniques such as glittering generality (how it doesn’t actually tell what the opportunity will benefit you).
This navy-recruiting poster during the First World War benefits from perfectly adopting a propaganda technique; card stacking. The biggest words on this poster are, “A Wonderful Opportunity for YOU”. The significance of this short phrase is that, even though it is obvious that war is a place where millions of people die, this poster makes the war seem like a holiday trip, supported by a young man in a navy suit, holding a suitcase with a huge smile on his face, and the ships in the background, which emphasises the point that he is going on a holiday. The technique, card stacking, makes it look like as if the navy is offering the one-time opportunity for young men to travel around the world where they can never otherwise visit. However, the real purpose of this poster is that all young men should be desperate to join the navy by emphasising how they can go on ships and travel around the world, using a virtue word like “wonderful”, but repressing the fact that they are actually going to war and most likely to be killed. Therefore, the phrase should actually say, “A Wonderful Opportunity For YOU to Die”. Additionally, this poster uses other propaganda techniques such as glittering generality (how it doesn’t actually tell what the opportunity will benefit you).