About US

We are four undergraduate students at the University of Maryland and are pleased to share our Cold War blog with you. As Western culture capitalists, we all share similar negative views regarding Communism.  Even today, there still exists an undeniable tension between our two nations. This tension being reinforced by Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 United States presidential election, constantly weighing Hillary Clinton’s campaign down. This and many other Russian American scandals have their roots in the Cold War.
With this in mind, we have taken a deeper look at the rhetoric employed behind anti-communist media in 1960’s America. In order to do this we have performed grueling amounts of research on two texts, ScotTissue Towels’ “Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?” and the political propaganda poster “If They Should Win”. These texts both capitalized upon and reinforced the rampant Anti-Communist sentiments prevalent in the United States at the time. During the 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a brutal ideological Cold War. The other was the enemy, no questions asked. The ad takes advantage of this extreme political climate by telling the public that the best way, the only viable option to stem the onslaught of communism, was to buy ScotTissue Towels. Lesser paper towels lead to worker discomfort, which invariably leads to mass socialist revolt. The other piece, the propaganda poster, warns of the extreme danger that communists pose to the American people. Communists, given the opportunity, will rape American women and American men. This shocking statement aimed to (and successfully) reinforce the idea in the minds of the American people that the Soviet Union was the primary evil in the world, a supervillain that only the United States could defeat.
The arrangement of our blog was extremely important to the user’s understanding of the topic. We began with the kairos of each text, as it laid out an explanation of the time period and familiarized the audience with the context of the situation. We then looked at the audience of the media, as this would help our audience realize who each text was aiming to convince. Next, we analyzed the main argument of each text, which gave our audience a better understanding of what each text was attempting to prove, building on the prior knowledge of the audience of each piece and the time period. We then reinforced this by looking at the ethos, logos, and pathos of the media. We chose this order as the ethos established the authority of the media to prove its point, the logos reinforced this authority by further establishing the credibility of the argument, and the pathos drew every aspect together. Furthermore, the pathos caused people to take action.
Given the current state of international affairs, especially in regards to North Korea and Russia, propaganda remains prevalent in modern society. However, it is not nearly as obvious as the two examples we have analyzed. We hope that after perusing our blog, the common person will be able to look at modern media and determine how it is attempting to influence them.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pathos: If Russia Should Win

This propaganda poster mainly appealed to pathos by forcing American men to question if they had any dignity, honor, and American values. Will they just watch as the USSR comes into America and spreads Communism? Or are they bold enough to protect women and children and confront the Soviet Union? If they did not, they “would be sterilized” and the majority of American society would look down on them. Since this poster was released during a time when traditional gender roles were still apparent, men felt responsible for taking care of the family. Therefore, it would go against all of their morals to disagree with the propaganda poster’s message. They have no excuse and must make a stand against communism now. Alex Ratliff
Read more

Logos: Scott Tissue Towels Ad

There are several logical appeals present in this text; the most powerful are closely tied to its appeal to the strong American sense of anti-communism. This particular appeal aims to justify the ad's bold claim that your washroom is "breeding bolsheviks". It does so by explaining why poor paper towels causes proletarian revolts: lesser paper towels are uncomfortable, and unsanitary, two factors that are proven to lead to discomfort and socialist tendencies. The ad goes on to explain how this is a simple example of "important courtesies", just as important as providing air and light. This is, after all, why those Russian reds overthrew their czar: the paper towels in the factory restrooms were horridly inadequate! In addition to this obvious appeal to the 20th century American businessman--single-handedly freezing communism's advance was a mighty good bar story!--the ad makes use of logical appeals in other ways as well. The ad touts the soft, pliable feel o...
Read more

Kairos: If Russia Should Win

Communism is a threat to American society, that is what the government needed to convince its citizens of. Though there were no physical battles being fought by men and guns, a war of ideals was taking place. This propaganda poster “If Russia Should Win” urged Americans to condemn Communism because their way of life was at stake. The Soviets had already converted several other countries and if America was not careful, they would be next. This poster urged its audience to act through presenting a beautiful woman being held under the boot of a giant communist and the phrase “...many men would be sterilized”. This essentially implied that Americans could not be considered men if they stood by and did nothing while foreigners came to take their women. Now was the time to act and to reaffirm their American values. Now was the time to stand up and protect their women. Now was the time to face communism. This poster created exigency through fear, and it seemed to have worked - Oliver Arguet...
Read more