The monster and the virgin: the legacy of the propaganda “Destroy This Mad Brute”

Abstract

This article analyses the recurrence of the poster “Destroy this mad brute” (1917), used by the Allies during World War II. As many advertisements of that period, this particular one portrayed Germany as the enemy of civilization, representing the country as an ape of exaggerated proportions, kidnapping a woman with classic features and costumes, resembling goddess Athena –the representative of wisdom and virginal behavior. This paper seeks to understand how the imaginary related to this poster has extended over other communication actions, examining the ways in which the poster has mutate or stuck its original features. The theoretical basis for the analysis corpus are Gilbert Durand’s studies on the imaginary combined with the theory of social representations of Serge Moscovici. As a result, we see that this imaginary cuts across the times, as well as the role of advertising in its constitution.