Critical Studies Images Analysis

Sam Lumley 1915 - 'war' advert

'The uncle sam' range advert

These two images are both about advertising and advertising to the local community but the way in which they do this is very different.

            There are common factors, which have been used in both the advertisements, which I am going to compare to show the differences.  To start with both the images are patriotic to the country. The ‘Uncle Sam’s Range’ is very obvious about this, using the colours of America and stars and stripes are built into the design too, this is all to do with the American flag. Uncle Sam the is the main theme of this advert with it being called ‘The Uncle Sam Range’ and having him in the advert itself, they have done this purposely because Uncle Sam is seen as the perfect American, someone that all citizens look up to because he has the perfect life and perfect family. Calling the range the ‘Uncle Sam Range’ will make the citizens think that if they buy this range they will have a happy family like Uncle Sam is showing in the advertisement. If you look very close at the clock it has the date 1776, which is independent day, when America was 100 years old, again this adds to the patriotic means.

            On the other hand the ‘war’ advertisement uses very subtle patriotic means to capture the audience. It uses very traditional colours, those of which are relevant to the times it was produced and to England. The curtains have the English Rose embellished on them, the sign of England and the armchair has a pattern which again is significant to England. All these small details within the work show that each advertisement is very true to its own country and take the responsibility of that.

            In both of the adverts a figure has been used to focus on. In the ‘war’ advert the man is centered in the middle of the advert looking straight at you making it feel personal. Also with it being a man in the advert it shows they are aiming it at the men, there is no mother in the advert.

            Similar the ‘Uncle Sam’ advert again uses a male which is Uncle Sam aiming the advert at the male of the household.

            Within both the adverts there is Social context, both used in different way. In the Uncle Sam advert there is a coloured boy at the range bringing out the food, this symbolises slavery and the mother is doing the cooking. I think that they are trying to show the perfect world, playing along with the ‘Uncle Sam’ theme they have going.

            The ‘war’ advert uses the male of family as the focus point, there is mother, making the advert aimed at all males out there, which is what they wanted as it was a recruitment advert.

            Type is used in both adverts, again in very different ways. In the war advert is has a hand written feel, which is in italic, this gives off a formal and indirect feel to the advert. Formal so that it shows importance but indirect because they cant tell you to sign up. The ‘Uncle Sam’ advert uses a serif font, which shows the importance of the cooker and shows how robust it is.

            The ‘war’ advert is shown in the future and called the great war, showing that they think they are going to win the war and that its going to be something well remembered off. Its also showing how the standard of life will improve and that you’ll have a happy family.

            The ‘Uncle Sam’s’ advert has an under laying tone of showing that America is better than everywhere else. The character of the world only showing certain countries, represents that America is a high brid of all these combined together to make one ‘right’ world. The food on the script are showing that countries are worse off than them by saying what they eat, also stereotyping them and everyone that is sat or around the table seems to be looking down on the world, again looking down on all the other countries.

            Overall both these adverts have used the same techniques but in a different way to communicate the means of the advert to the audience. In doing so they are both an aspiration to the audience, they make them think that if they do what the advert is telling them they’ll end up with something better than they have, giving them false hope, but something to strive for. Both adverts do communicate the purpose and are very effective in what they were designed for.