Lot's of different pics of this sign.

Lot's of different pics of this sign.
"I don't make hell for nobody. I'm only the instrument of a laughing providence. Sometimes I don't like it myself, but I couldn't help it if I was born smart."

1st Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden.
"From here to Eternity"

Paul Valery

"You are in love with intelligence, until it frightens you. For your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time."

The Wisdom of the Ages

"When a young man, I read somewhere the following: God the Almighty said, 'All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed',"

Mikhail Kalashnikov
"Here lies the bravest soldier I've seen since my mirror got grease on it."

Zapp Brannigan

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A Brief Word Regarding Attention Span...

The good Lord Kitchener's pithy words epitomize 'no bullshit'.
But, would they have had any effect on the generations that had "Be all that you can be", "Aim High", "Not Just a Job. It's an Adventure" and my favorite: "Army of one" pitched at them.
Would they have known what the hell he was talking about?

4/26
In response to Don, "The Many-Armed Schoolteacher"'s comment:

3 comments:

Don said...

All true. On the other hand, do you have any evidence that the poster you picture was a recruiting success? Part of the reason those other slogans exist is that careful market research showed that they would work. I often don't enjoy things created by market research, but they tend to be popular, and for a recruiting poster, popularity is a virtue.

I don't know any answers, but I got plenty questions.

Anyway, TAG.

Dan brock said...

The answers are easy, Don. Just make them up.
I suspect this effort of Kitchener's wasn't run by the focus group enough.
It got better though. He also starred in the Brit poster, "I Want You..." -an idea later famously ripped off by George Mongomery Flagg.

Anonymous said...

I have no numbers for this, but Lord Kitchener was a *major* national hero in the UK. 'Superstar' would not be over the line. He was considered a national hero for his successes in Sudan and South Africa; he was also very influential and fortunate in the beginning of WWI. As these things go though, he made numerous political enemies (not unlike Churchill).

There's a Wiki article on him (and the poster) that isn't too off-base. A better read would be:
Kitchener: Architect of Victory, Artisan of Peace by John Pollock. I'm a fan of him (and Churchill).

Regardless, based on HH's 'star-power,' especially in 1914-15, I'm sure the poster was effective.

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the US copy of this poster the first printing of "Uncle Sam?"

MoE

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