Propaganda, Persuasion and the Great War: Heredity in the Modern Sale of Products and Political Ideas

235 Pages·2017·6.35 MB·English

by  Pier Paolo Pedrini

Propaganda, Persuasion
and the Great War
How to persuade citizens to enlist? How to convince them to fi ght in a war
which was, for many, distant in terms of kilometres as well as interest?
Modern persuasion techniques, both political and commercial, were used to
motivate enlistment and fi nancial support to build a “factory of consensus”.
The propagandists manipulated the public, guiding their thoughts and
actions according to the wishes of those in power and were therefore the
forerunners of spin doctors and marketing and advertising professionals.
Their posters caught the attention of members of the public with images
of children and beautiful women, involving them, nourishing their inner
needs for well-being and social prestige, motivating them by showing them
testimonials in amusing and adventurous situations, and inspiring their way
of perceiving the enemy and the war itself, whose objective was to “make
the world safe for democracy”.
In the discourse of this strategy, we fi nd storytelling, humour, satire and
fear, but also the language of gestures, recognized as important for the com-
pleteness of messages. Were the propagandists “hidden persuaders” who
knew the characteristics of the human mind? We do not know for certain.
However, their posters have a personal and consistent motivation which this
book intends to demonstrate.
Pier Paolo Pedrini teaches Techniques of Persuasion for the Masters Program
in Public Management and Policy at the University of Italian Switzerland,
Psychology of Communication at the Institute of Continuing Education
and at other advanced schools. A researcher at the Ecole Nationale de
l’Administration Publique (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau),
he is also an advertising agent and a consultant for marketing and advertising.
Routledge Studies in Modern European History
45 Propaganda, Persuasion and the Great War
Heredity in the modern sale of products and political ideas
Pier Paolo Pedrini
44 Divided Village
The Cold War in the German Borderlands
Jason B. Johnson
43 Oil Exploration, Diplomacy, and Security in the Early Cold War
The Enemy Underground
Roberto Cantoni
42 German Reunifi cation
Unfi nished Business
Joyce E. Bromley
41 The Summer Capitals of Europe, 1814–1919
Marina Soroka
40 Resistance Heroism and the End of Empire
The Life and Times of Madeleine Riffaud
Keren Chiaroni
39 Green Landscapes in the European City, 1750–2010
Edited by Peter Clark, Marjaana Niemi and Catharina Nolin
38 Order and Insecurity in Germany and Turkey
Military Cultures of the 1930s
Emre Sencer
37 (Re)Constructing Communities in Europe, 1918–1968
Senses of Belonging Below, Beyond and Within the Nation-State
Edited by Stefan Couperus and Harm Kaal
Propaganda, Persuasion

and the Great War
Heredity in the Modern Sale of
Products and Political Ideas
Pier Paolo Pedrini
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Pier Paolo Pedrini
The right of Pier Paolo Pedrini to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Translated by Stephen Smith, Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.
Cover image: International War Museum, London, Art. IWM PST 13670
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pedrini, Pier Paolo, author.
Title: Propaganda, persuasion and the Great War : heredity in the
modern sale of products and political ideas / Pier Paolo Pedrini.
Other titles: Heredity in the modern sale of products and political ideas
Description: Abingdon, Oxon, New York, NY : Taylor & Francis
Group, [2017] | Series: Propaganda, persuasion and the great war
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017008430 | ISBN 9781138293915 (hardback : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781315231815 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1914–1918—Propaganda. | World War,
1914–1918—Posters. | War posters—History—20th century. |
World War, 1914–1918—Recruitment, enlistment, etc. | World War,
1914–1918—Public opinion. | Communication in politics. | Persuasion
(Psychology)
Classifi cation: LCC D639.P6 P47 2017 | DDC 940.4/88—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008430
ISBN: 978-1-138-29391-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-23181-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
1 Propaganda and persuasion 12
2 Persuading for the Great War 19
3 The organization of the persuasive apparatus 25
4 Attracting attention 37
4.1 Children as decoy 43
4.2 Beauty as decoy 44
5 Repeating the message 49
6 The power of questions 53
7 The persuasion of the source 57
7.1 The authority of source 57
7.2 The authority of quotations 63
8 Unity is strength 67
8.1 Silencing the critics 67
8.2 Origins unite 74
8.3 The call of the banner 76
8.4 Other patriotic symbols of unity 80
vi Contents
9 Target 1: the home front 83
9.1 Out of duty and solidarity 90
9.2 To educate, inform 90
9.3 Persuading to invest 96
9.4 Children and the principle of familiarity 99
9.5 Women as weapons of persuasion 106
9.6 Reciprocity. I am fi ghting for you! 109
9.6.1 Reciprocity and the strategy of shame 120
9.6.2 The veterans 122
9.6.3 The intellectuals 122
9.6.4 The Afro-Americans 124
9.6.5 The immigrants 125
10 Target 2: men to enlist 129
10.1 Follow the example 143
10.1.1 Follow the example of your ancestors 144
10.1.2 Follow the example of your countrymen 149
10.1.3 Follow the example of sportsmen 156
10.1.4 Follow the example of your friends 159
10.2 The propaganda of fear 161
10.2.1 Denouncing the crimes of the enemy 163
10.2.2 Demonizing the enemy 175
10.3 The principle of scarcity. Illustrating threats 180
10.3.1 Democracy 183
10.3.2 Liberty 185
10.3.3 Honour and justice 188
10.3.4 The family 190
Conclusion 195
List of images 197
Subject and author index 199
Preface
The reader is neither frightened off nor compelled to stop; this is not an essay
exclusively for those with a passion for history. Of course it is about the
Great War, about events which took place a hundred years ago. But actually
it is very modern in the sense that through that period it speaks about the
propaganda that we experience every day, that continues to exist and spread
and that shapes our world view.
This is the impression I got as I read through the proofs of the book, page
by page, illustration by illustration. Compared with then, the techniques of
communication have changed. Today, posters are of marginal importance
while in 1914–18, not only was there no Internet, but no TV either. However,
the basic logic, the objectives and, most of all, the whole ensemble of per-
suasive techniques has remained essentially the same. These combine com-
munication, psychology and sociology extremely effectively with the aim of
infl uencing not only the conscious mind of the individual but also – or even
more importantly – the subliminal dimension, that of the emotions, of iden-
tity, playing on fear, on hate, appealing to noble sentiments such as justice
and peace, using them as a means of manipulation. There is only one justice,
that which satisfi es the arguments of one side, causing them to prevail; true
peace can only be attained through annihilation or forced surrender of the
enemy, who naturally uses exactly the same argumentation – with more or
less the same skill – on his own people.
Pier Paolo Pedrini revives the posters of the Great War with expertise and
precision while avoiding the most common error, didacticism; due to this
he is never tiresome for the reader. The great value of the essay lies in its
capacity for contextualization. This enables the researcher to draw on very
interesting sources and to discover some real “gems” of communication; the
non-specialized reader on the other hand is able to grasp the real signifi cance
of war propaganda, obtaining an awareness of the risks of media manipula-
tion, the effects of which are also present in our time.
Since 1945 the countries of Western Europe have no longer experienced
the horrors of war, nor therefore the devastating force of war propaganda.
However they are exposed to constant bombardment by the media, of which
democracy has diversifi ed the form but not the substance. It is no accident
viii Preface
that, precisely in the fi rst years of the last century, the father of spin, Edward
Bernays and almost at the same time another exorcist of the truth, Ivy Lee,
established themselves, starting off what we know today as spin and modern
media manipulation. Today we are immersed in communication of all kinds:
advertising, politics as well as social media. Only, as there is no declared
enemy to combat, we are unaware of the invisible pressure we are being
subjected to, of the fact that someone is constantly trying to shape our judge-
ment, our social behaviour and our values. It often succeeds, imposing an
unambiguous vision of reality upon a very large segment of the public; this in
turn distorts our perception of what is happening around us, our judgement
of large international events; it also conditions our values and our social and
religious behaviour. Thus, a rather long discussion well beyond the scope of
this essay, which concentrates on the manipulation of the masses in wartime.
Our Occidental truth does not coincide with that of the Russians or the
Chinese, but everyone claims that theirs – and only theirs – is objective. On
the contrary, it is always partial, as it was between 1914 and 1918. Although
unable to rely on sophisticated studies such as those which benefi t their
modern counterparts, or spin doctors, propagandists then still succeeded in
controlling public opinion, thus creating the incentive to fi ght wars that a
few members of the elite had declared for motives different from the offi cial
ones, naturally in the name of, and in defence of, the public interest.
This essay helps us understand and awakens our consciousness in the
event (God forbid, but you never know!) that some irresponsible leader
drags us into another world war, declared while having recourse to the same
techniques and with the same manipulative results as in 1914–18. Through
his analysis of posters, Pier Paolo Pedrini explains these exceptionally well.
by Marcello Foa 1
Note
1 Journalist, Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Italian
Switzerland
Introduction
What was will be and what has been done will be done again there is nothing
new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1: 9
An analysis of the themes of the Great War clearly demonstrates that the
techniques used one hundred years ago to convince civilians to enlist or
to give fi nancial support to the war effort had an enormous potential for
development to such a degree that they were adopted by modern political
and commercial persuasion.
The principle that “nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, but everything
is transformed” applies even more in the area of communication. Over the
years, the technical means of relaying a message has evolved but the psycho-
logical basis for its construction has remained the same.
This idea evolved after reading Propaganda (1928) by the American adver-
tising agent Edward Bernays (1891–1975). An astonishing book, it provides
illuminating interpretations both for the understanding of war propaganda –
not just for World War I – and for commercial discourse of which Bernays
became a promoting agent.
The nephew of Sigmund Freud (1856–1919), Bernays developed an early
knowledge of his ideas and applied them systematically in his use of promo-
tion, which was in many ways a precursor of modern advertising techniques.
Even though today’s messages are a great deal more sophisticated, he was
undoubtedly one of the fi rst to use propaganda by means of suggestion and
to be convinced of the potentially manipulative and propagandistic character
of advertising.
In advance of his time, Bernays’s vision of advertising would not just
provide the incentive to acquire, it would also include an image of the con-
sumer, whose role would fi rst of all be to share the discourse created by the
advertiser, whose world view would be refl ected in the philosophy of the
brand and be compatible with the words used in the promotion, in order to
be persuaded, fi nally, to buy the product.