Destroy This Mad Brute
The United States never had a large standing army, and that meant that when war came they had to quickly mobilize and get public support for the war. President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information whose job it was to put forth propaganda towards the war. Wilson chose George Creel to head the organization largely because Creel had a unique approach to propaganda that Wilson agreed with. Creel did not want to censor information, which was contrary to most propaganda initiatives at the time. He would allow the papers to publish what they wanted as long as they did not print enemy propaganda or lies about the war.
Since the United States had not quite reached the age of mass media, Creel focused most of his attention on posters. Some of the posters that were created through his department remain as iconic images to U.S. culture today, such as the Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster. Creel partnered with advertising agencies and put his posters everywhere. They were on subways, bus stops, billboards, barns, and anywhere else an American might walk. Creel also hired 75,000 men to travel and deliver hundreds of patriotic speeches to rally people to the war effort. Creel’s operation was considered one of the most successful to date as his efforts even reached Europe and Germany.
Some of the propaganda took a less patriotic turn and focused on defeating a barbaric enemy. This poster shows a large brutish ape carrying a woman away and leaving destruction behind him. He carries a club that says “Kultur” which was representative of German culture. It also shows the brute making his way across the ocean and stepping onto American shores as a way to instill fear into the hearts of Americans that the German menace could reach them.
This sort of propaganda was effective but it also put numerous German-Americans at risk. They faced persecution for being associated with the Germans, despite their families having lived in the United States for generations.