Study Task 1

the first image shows a vintage advertisement for an uncle sam cooking range. the second is a 1930 advertisement for new transport links in East Africa. 

the first thing i noticed when looking at the two images were the strong figurative themes. both of them show bias opinions to western values and racial attitudes towards black people, however the ‘uncle sam range’ advert displays the racism more subtly with the boy cooking in the corner. They both quite obviously have themes of cultural superiority and the slave trade.

In the ‘east-african old style’ image, you can clearly see the women and children helping to transport items whilst the men watch over. However in the ‘new style’ you can see that there is no women, which is almost as if the Empire Marketing Board is insinuating that women are weak and cannot help out with construction. You can also see themes of misogyny in the ‘uncle sam range’ advert. The woman can be seen serving uncle sam. however in terms of hierarchy in the images the white man in the ‘east African new’ is the highest point of the image, which makes him stand out more and almost like he is higher to suggest he is of a higher hierarchy. but back to the original point, in the ‘uncle sam range’ advert the woman is the highest point of the image however she is still serving the man, showing the status of women in the past.

Both fonts of the images are big and bold, so as to make them stand out to the viewer. The ‘uncle sam range’ advert has a very westernised font, almost like something you would see on a cowboy movie poster. This is as if the artist thought “what is the whitest font I can think of… bingo”. This relates to the domination of white people, as in western America, the white man very much controlled the native Indians.

In both of the adverts you can see the advertisement of the benefits of technology. The first image promotes the progress of technology and America, as we can see on the clock from the ‘1776-1876’ which is in reference to the fourth of july 1776, when the American declaration of independence was signed. As it shows the date now, it is noting the development of America in the past 100 years and how they have ‘helped to feed the world’. We can see this theme from the “bill” that the earth is holding, with stereotypical foods that America is billing the earth with. The second image shows the development of technology through how transport is apparently developing. You can see a bridge has been built with trucks moving along. This kind of technology was not developed yet in Africa.

The images both seem to be aimed at a middle class demographic. You can see this clearly see this in the ‘uncle sam range’ advert as it’s like the advert is suggesting that if they invest in these products then their life will be improved. The second one is almost like it’s telling western countries how great the work is that they’re doing in Africa and not to worry, as if it was one of the main worries of old time white men.