Pearl Harbor Advertisement Analysis

There is a wife sitting alone by a television; the rocking chair next to her is empty. The year is 1942, just one year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But where could her husband be? He is off fighting in World War II. She wonders if there is any way possible for her to possibly support her husband, and the millions of Americans who are overseas. Suddenly she recalls seeing a poster on her walk home. It read, “STAMP ‘EM OUT! BUY U.S. STAMPS AND BONDS.” Advertisements such as this were posted all around America. The purpose of advertisements was to increase support for the war, sell war bonds, and to boost American morale. During World War II, the United States relied heavily upon the purchase of war bonds. War bonds were debt securities issued by the government that helped to finance military operations during the war. In a way, the result of the war …show more content…
It was in the hands of the faithful and patriotic citizens of the United States of America to support the war effort in any way possible. The idea of supporting the United States military was instantly a huge success after Pearl Harbor. So much so, that the content of the war messages had to be controlled; and thus, the Office of War Information (OWI) had to be created in June of 1942 (Bird and Rubenstein). Over a period of time the Office of War Information created six major themes for the major producers of mass media entertainment (Bird and Rubenstein). These six themes were, “The Nature of the Enemy, The Nature of our Allies, The need to Work, The Need to Fight, The need to Sacrifice, and the Americans” (Bird and Rubenstein). The whole point of these ads was not only to sell war bonds and benefit the country, but the Government had to ensure that the American people supported the war effort. To support the war effort one had to oppose the enemy. In this case, the enemy was the Axis powers which consisted of the Japanese, Germans, and the