For the first time in years, I thought of Tony Hancock. In the ‘Blood Donor’ episode of Hancock’s Half Hour, Hancock exits a doctors’ surgery singing the words ‘coughs and sneezes spread diseases, catch the germs in your handkerchief’ to the tune of Deutschland, Deutschland Ueber Alles. I have only seen this clip once or twice, but evidently it made a lasting impression because there it was, in my mind’s ear, on being confronted by a 1940s anti-flu poster at the British Library’s propaganda exhibition.
Propaganda: Power and Persuasion features more persuasion than power. Goebbels and Uncle Sam are represented, but do not dominate. Indeed, the curators challenge the notion that propaganda is negative or a necessary evil when at war. Space is given to numerous public health campaigns from all over the world (your starter for ten: which campaign adopted the slogan ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’?) And the London 2012 Games and the Festival of Britain are used to show that propaganda can forge national unity and identity in times of peace.
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