Project 2 - Modes of Appeal

“Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser Too”
Paul Verrees (1889–1942)
Poster promoting Victory gardens, USA,1918
(C) The National War Gardening Commission
Photograph from the International Poster Gallery www.internationalpostergallery.com

Since World War I started in 1914 many millions of men left their farms to go to t he battlefield. Many thousands of acres of ripe harvest during the summer were trampled and burned, causing massive shortages of food in France, Russia and England. supply. Food distribution from nation to nation came to a grinding halt. The nearest place where food could be produced was North America. By default, the burden landed on U.S. shoulders.

1916 was the toughest year on European and North American food reserves. Daily rations were at an all time low. Many attribute the disaster of 1917 on the Italian front to the shortage of food for soldiers on the battlefield. There had to be an increased production and supply of food production, lessening food consumption by rationing would not be enough.

Remaining men and women across America began to realize the only way to win the war effort was to begin gardening themselves and the collective accumulation of tiny droplets of food supply would result in a torrent of energy and stamina for those fighting on the field.

With this vision in mind, the only thing needed would be some kind of huge publicity effort in order to educate the people. Posters like this one by J. Paul Verrees were created to inspire the ‘war-gardener’ and put up in local towns and villages all across the United States.

Verrees was a Belgian, a soldier artist, wounded on the battlefields of the war while helping to defend his country. He was incapacitated for any further army service and came to the U.S. to pick up his profession as an artist. Another of his works include the poster ‘Join The Air Service And Serve In France’. He also painted pictures like “Tree Lined Path’, and ‘The Swans, Bruges' shown below.


Images from prices4antiques.com, allposters.com and skinnerinc.com

The “Can the Kaiser” poster, as it was known, was very effective in getting at the heart of the solution, what was needed to win the war. If Americans everywhere would grow vegetables on every available plot of land, the accumulating produce of millions of citizens would be enough to up the rations overseas, strengthen the soldiers and overturn the evil powers. In 1918, 5,285,000 war gardens like the one pictured below yielded 528,285,000 pounds of food.

Image from earthlypursuits.com - garden of a Chicago amateur.

Modes of communication employed in Verrees poster design:

Color
Lots of natural colors used to fit with the theme of gardening

Image
Pictures of jars and canned vegetables would have been extremely recognizable at the time but seeing the famous generals head in the jar, his hat on the top and and a sword attached to the outside would have drawn the connection between gardening and fighting. It would have brought the two things down onto the same level, meaning, to grow vegetables is just as important as fighting on the battlefield.

Text
There is clever use of ‘pun’ by the double meaning in ‘Can’–‘can’ as in vegetables, and ‘can’ as in shut up or close off the enemy.
The poster serves two uses; one would be stimulating and energizing the public, showing them that their gardening efforts would have huge dividends and the other would be to continue education by promotion of the free gardening book available from the National War Garden Commission in Washington D.C.
On the foremost jar containing the Kaiser’s head are the words “Kaiser Brand Unsweetened,” also used to reinforce the message of victory

Logos
The poster definitely promotes a very logical solution–can your goods, help win the war. By the time this poster was printed in 1918 the victory would have been imminent and gardeners all over the U.S were already producing and shipping many thousands of tons of foodstuffs to Europe.

Pathos
The poster also employs an emotional plea, “if you will commit to developing your own plot of land and cultivating it in order to make food and then preserve it, you will help us win the war.” The look on the Kaiser’s face is one of frustration and defeat.