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Monday, November 03, 2008
Political ad watch: Soviet propaganda images in Obama's campaign
Zomblog came across some pretty interesting "Bark for Barack" signs:
What's so special about this poster? Nothing, really, unless you compare it to this piece of Communist propaganda:
Notice the eerie similarities? This latter poster was created by Soviet artist Alexander Rodchenko in the 1920s.
Of course, Soviet-era art is pretty stunning. I got a chance to see a number of different original posters and other Soviet-era art pieces at the Tate Modern Art Museum when I lived in London. Each of them were fine pieces of pro-state propaganda.
You might think that it is fine and dandy for a modern-day political movement to mimick or copy the designs, but you would be wrong. For those of us of Polish descent, like me, or those of us who suffered under the Communist monstrosity either in the past or currently, these images are associated with one of the worst periods in human history. That art work, and the associations it likely brings to mind, should be reserved for modern museums, not recycled for political purposes. Ever.
h/t LGF
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on November 3, 2008 in U.S. politics | Permalink
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Comments
Its probably made by Sarah Palin, remember she can see Russia from her house :)
Besides Communism is good for you. Sovietism not so good..
Posted by: Ronny HH | 2008-11-02 11:37:40 PM
Besides Communism is good for you. Sovietism not so good..
Posted by: Ronny HH | 2-Nov-08 11:37:40 PM
Eh?
Must be an Obamite.
Posted by: JC | 2008-11-03 6:07:56 AM
Jaws,
I understand your reaction, but please understand if others don't share it. After all, most people don't find listening to Wagner or the design of the VW Beetle to be particularly offensive despite their association with the Nazis. I say love the art, hate the political causes for which the art was used.
I'm pretty sure you never experienced the oppression that went on in the 1920's just as I never was a direct victim of the Nazis (although I never met one of my grandfathers because he was killed by them). So the issue of being personally offended by the recycling of the artistic style seems to me doubly odd.
BTW, given your position on that image, what do you think about this video: http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/10/video-the-obama.html ? Or this image: http://www.jewcy.com/files/images/hitler_obama_0.preview.jpg ? Are they bad because they are unfair to Obama, because they evoke images of past evil, neither, or both?
Posted by: Fact Check | 2008-11-03 6:14:52 AM
That's all well and good but it has nothing to do with the fact we've had Bush for 8 years and I don't want 4 more years of the same.Besides,with McCain running against Bush as well as Obama,how is McCain going to get anything accomplished in Washington? He's against democrats and republicans,ridiculous as that sounds.You may as well vote for Bob Barr or Ralph Nader.They are running against both major parties also.How much do you think they would get done in Washington.It looks like most of you want Obama to lose but it appears you haven't thought about what your actions will produce. Unless you want NO problems solved,vote McCain. If you want real change,vote Obama.
Posted by: pete penguin | 2008-11-03 6:22:22 AM
Obama's a fan of Franz Ferdinand?
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-11-03 8:19:50 AM
I don't think Wagner and the VW beetle is the same as full-on political propaganda, Fact Check. At least, not to me.
We can agree that using swastikas in contemporary political propaganda would be obviously wrong. So would the use of images that are clear rip-offs of outright Nazi propaganda. I think the same when it comes to Communist propaganda, unless it's done ironically.
There's clearly vagueness here in what is and isn't appropriate, but my judgment still stands, and I think it is different from the VW beetle or Wagner (actually, if a modern political campaign used a Wagner tune that the Nazis used, I would have the same reaction. I think you would share it, Fact Check. You just can't use stuff that was used to push Nazism or Soviet-style Communism to push political candidates.)
Posted by: P.M. Jaworski | 2008-11-03 10:49:44 AM
False alarm.
Graphic designers have lifted motifs from Soviet-era posters since the Soviets first stuck them on walls. Pop down to any college library and flip through the Communication Arts design annuals and you'll see thousands upon htousands of examples of work modelled after the works of Vatolina and so on.
For example, here's the 50th anniversay edition of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, using crisp and purposeful geometry, a strong and limited palette of colours, and the trademark heavy sans-serif typeface for the focal text.
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12300000/12308815.jpg
Obama's campaign is where it is today because they're really decentralized and agile (which has to bug the critics who cast him as a big-administration type). Designers have a lot of leeway, which is why there was an Obama 08 iPhone App built and deployed by just 10 people. Now obviously in this poster's case we're talking about a piovate group's initiative, and one that you were supposed to see the humor in, but hey.
Posted by: Steve | 2008-11-03 2:35:14 PM
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