The choice of typography in both images is very different, and provide different ideas and concepts; the Saville Lumley image uses a soft and spoken typeface where the Uncle Sam poster design uses a saloon style typeface. Both however were used for very specific reasons, the softer-spoken type is used to portray the innocence of the daughter’s voice using the uppercase ‘YOU’ adds to the images feel of guilt. The saloon themed typeface is used culturally relating to the idea of cowboys and a western saloon that, making the target audience think of the American dream, freedom and prosperity. The Uncle Sam image also plays with upper case using the U and S of Uncle Sam to represent US and the origins of the product.
Both of the images are there to convince and persuade, the Saville Lumley image uses aspects of guilt to encourage the audience to sign up to the army, the image portrays a child asking her father about his experiences and input during the great war, it generates a situation where your children aren’t proud of you because you never signed up. There are strong themes of queen and country, the chairs and roses on the curtains are both symbols of royalty again playing on the theme of guilt and debt to your country. The Uncle Sam poster design however is there to advertise and persuade people to buy the cooker; the ideas in the image are very patriotic and somewhat racist, it suggests American superiority, and tells people to buy into such a powerful and successful continent.
The audiences for the images are both culturally specific; the Lumley image uses the themes of royalty, patriotism and nationalism to get people who haven’t already signed up to the army to do so. The Uncle Sam image also uses themes of patriotism with the repeated American flags colours running through the image, Uncle Sam’s trousers, over the floor, curtains and even the wall paper to convince American people to buy their product. It is also aimed directly at the upper class, people who can afford their own slaves and can afford the luxury standard of life depicted in the image.
The Lumley image has a direct historical context, with its relation to the war and the setting of the image, set after the war but produced and distributed during the first war. It was produced to convince people to sign up for the war, when it wasn’t compulsory. The social importance of family values in the image is another distinct theme that relates back to its historical setting. The Uncle Sam image is arrogant using ideas that would no longer be acceptable; it suggests the idea of a fantasy life and importance of the man in the house, with him at the head of the table with food being served to him whether that from his wife or slave.
