Old-fashioned propaganda visits O.C. fairgrounds for new exhibit

"Fighting on the Home Front: Propaganda Posters of World War II" is on exhibit through May 3 at the Heroes Hall veterans museum at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.

Oct. 3, 2019 4:46 PM PT

“Loose lips sink ships.” “We can do it.” “Uncle Sam wants you!”

You can probably picture the colorful posters depicting a sinking boat, Rosie the Riveter and the pointing American icon.

A new exhibit at the Heroes Hall veterans museum at the OC Fair & Event Center, open from this week until May, showcases an array of World War II-era propaganda posters.

The federal Office of War Information commissioned artists to design the posters to bolster national unity and encourage citizens to join the war effort. Many promoted the sale of war bonds, while others urged people to ration gasoline and food.

“Can all you can,” reads one poster of a glass jar nestled among colorful vegetables.

Others carry more serious messages.

“The battle-wise infantryman,” warns a dark green poster featuring a stern-looking soldier, “is careful of what he says or writes. How about you?”

“Those posters inspired a nation and in a way that I don’t think our country has been inspired previously,” said Nick Berardino, president of the Heroes Hall Veterans Foundation and an avid collector of propaganda posters.

“You had to keep it in front of people’s faces, and that’s what these posters did. ... You have hundreds of thousands of troops overseas fighting. The ability to keep them fighting during that period of time had to be underwritten by a nation. … And the poster played an incredible part of it.”

The posters, on loan from the Detroit Historical Society, traveled to Florida and Kansas before landing at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Bill Pringle, assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Society, said many images from the posters show up today in popular culture, such as Rosie the Riveter Halloween costumes or pins.

“They’re a historical artifact, they’re a piece of artwork beautifully illustrated and they’re a really great example of marketing,” Pringle said. “Those three aspects rolled into one make a compelling artifact. I think that resonates with a lot of people.”

These are some of messages on display at Heroes Hall at the OC Fair & Event Center as part of the new exhibit "Fighting on the Home Front: Propaganda Posters of World War II."

Though the word “propaganda” strikes a disturbing chord for some people, Heroes Hall supervisor Carol Singleton said “propaganda poster” is a genre.

“In this case, it was for an honorable thing, to support this war against the evil,” Singleton said.

During the 1940s, posters were an effective method of mass messaging, Berardino said. Today’s primary mass messaging tool is social media, in which a message sometimes can evolve or be distorted.

“The posters were clearly designed with a message, and the message was, ‘We’re in a war; it’s going to take all of us to get out of it. Everybody put your shoulder to it in the way that you can,’” Berardino said.

“And I find that much different than a bunch of bloggers sending out misinformation, disinformation and wild conspiracy theories that divide a nation.”

A poster in the "Fighting on the Home Front" exhibit at Heroes Hall in Costa Mesa refers to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that led to the United States entering World War II.

Heroes Hall is supplementing the World War II exhibit with vintage memorabilia, including a nurse’s uniform, a printing press, newsreels and cartoons. Heroes Hall and the fairgrounds’ Centennial Farm have partnered to grow a Victory Garden similar to those that families were encouraged to start during the war effort.

“It is a very thought-provoking topic,” Singleton said. “Government messages and just the history of World War II and a country coming together for a common cause … is a rare thing.”