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"A Vast Enterprise in Salesmanship"
To convince a reluctant public to support American participation in World War I, the U.S. government created a Committee on Public Information. The committee was responsible for what its chair, George Creel, called "a vast enterprise in salesmanship."
Among those the committee recruited to change American hearts and minds were more than 300 volunteer artists and copy writers from the advertising industry. Working within the Division of Pictorial Publicity, they created posters based on the same strategy they used for selling consumer goods -- one that played on peoples' emotions, then told them what to do. |