Logo Creative Review

More messing around with the fun art of North Korean propaganda.

In this installment, the client plays the role he plays best, Supreme Dictator and Arbiter of All Things Creative. (click)

For Me, This is Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Combining two of my favorite things: old socialist propaganda illustrations and making fun of social media gurus and conferences. But now that I think about it, they really aren't that much different from one another, are they? Click image for better.

This is How They Fight Child Abuse in North Korea

You go ahead and change your Facebook profile picture to your favorite cartoon character and we'll see how many children don't get abused as a result of your effort, all you cause-of-the-week bandwagon jumpers. I'm sorry, I just don't see the point. How will talking about child abuse alter the behavior of child abusers? That's the point of the exercise, after all. You're supposed to be starting a conversation about child abuse via your Facebook profile picture. So, have you been talking about child abuse? Yeah, I didn't think so. The whole exercise seems a silly waste of time designed to make you feel good about yourself. I hope it worked. But I pity the children who get abused next week when you change your profile picture to reflect the latest cause du jour.

Meantime, here's a great propaganda poster from a North Korean collection. The caption reads, "She defeated a bad person who had been harassing children." Awesome. Say what you will about the crazy North Koreans, but even their young girls know how to combat child abuse way better than we do.

Socialists Don't Believe in Royalties

The cool thing about Chinese propaganda posters is they were almost always painted by an artist listed as "unknown" and they're done for a foreign communist government, so you're free to abuse the often stunning artwork without fear of legal reprisal and those pesky Cease and Desist letters. As noted on the website where I lifted these fine images:

"The designers/artists of the posters were employees of the art academies, museums, or publishers. During the high tide of socialism, it was seen as counterrevolutionary to exercise personal claims to the copyrights over the works. It would be safe to consider the academies, etc., as the copyright holders. Now, in our experience, these institutions do not exercise their copyrights for materials published in the period 1949-mid-1980s. With the Chinese adoption of the ISBN-system, all this has changed, of course." 

Some of the original wording on these is great stuff, like "Resolutely cut off the bloody and criminal hand of the American aggressor that spreads germs!" from 1952. Or this gem from 1950: "Family members, relatives and friends of criminal secret agents, you must supervise and urge criminals to register and turn over a new leaf!" And apparently there was a campaign to murder all the sparrows, which they did, only to be plagued by bed bugs.

So until the Chinese are your overlords and they put all of us who work in "the arts" either to death or to work in the propaganda sweatshops*, feel free to use these in your campaigns. (See what some have done here.)



* You think your Creative Director is a dick? Wait'll they're telling you EXACTLY what to design and write.

Random Monday Old Illustration Mutilation

Originally this was a Bell Telephone poster. Now it's not.

When He Wears Chuck Taylors, They Look Like Clown Shoes

Oh please, for the Love of God, click it

Jesus God Almighty, I'm hearin' some crazy talk out there in my country. Been watchin' Fox News tonight. Lock up the women, arm yourselves, and have plenty of water and gold. Obama has passed Phase One in his Eight-Phase Plan to lift Lady Liberty's dress and sodomize her with the rolled-up scroll of the Constitution out there in the harbour for all the world to see. Especially the Arabs. If we can get That Guy out of office after only Four Phases, the worst may be avoided, though you can expect that the Koran will have replaced the Bible in courtrooms nationwide. But you hold fast, friend. Brother. We will defeat this foe.  Let Freedom Ring. Let the White Dove Sing. Let the Whole World Know it's the Day of Reckoning*.


I don't think I've ever done this, but I'm gonna repost an old post, because my dear countrymen, the Prophet Beck and Patriot Hannity, deserve it. Orignally posted January 8th of this year.

Because The Four Horsemen Won't Be Bringing Food  

Glenn Beck is the new spokesman for Food Insurance, a company that wants to make sure you survive the coming tribulations with your bellies filled. And they're coming, Beck warns in a video on the company's site. He's got these little backpacks for his whole family and his staff, and they look all Swiss Army or Red Cross-like. Two weeks of freeze-dried goodness for as little as $199.99 per person. Want to feed a family of five for an entire year? Only $9,299.99. Financing available.

Now I'm all for being prepared, but Glenn and his pals are turning preparedness into an industry that preys on the fearful and misinformed. Make sure you have plenty of gold coins so you can trade with other survivors for essentials like old issues of Town Hall Magazine and Sarah Palin's book.

So take note, all you marauders, murderers, pillagers, rapists and zombies out there planning on surviving the destruction: just look for the people with the black and red backpacks with the fork icon on them. That means "food" and you can steal them at gunpoint as they flee the city in their Hummers and Escalades.

* Lyrics from Sean Hannity's theme song.

Crossposted to Radio Free Babylon

My Favorite Propaganda Poster of All Time

I turned this into a refrigerator magnet, because it is so awesome. Simple and to the point: If you're not in a carpool, you're a Nazi.

Stay In School, Tommy

Class: We are about to watch a message from the government about being a good citizen in school. If anyone does not wish to watch this film, you are excused if you have a note from your parents. Some of your parents have sent me angry letters accusing me of wanting to indoctrinate you into a strange ideology and change your way of thinking because of this film. Personally, and this is only my opinion, kids, some of your parents are really retarded.

I'm sorry. I meant "severely mentally handicapped."



Did you catch that part at the end about multiculturalism? The Italian girl does a folk dance? Fuckin' commies!

Land of the Spin, Home of the Talking Point

I don't know how they can even call it a debate anymore. It's beyond hopeless. If you're not disgusted, you're not paying attention. I need a long vacation away from my country. When I come back, I fully expect it will be worse.

Click for the larger, stealable version.

Crossposted to Radio Free Babylon.

Note to Self

Mucho mas grande para posting en tu cubicle

Joe The Plumber - The Real Story

Thank God for YouTube. Here's the full "confrontation" between Joe The Plumber and Barack Obama. Sean Hannity will never let you see this.



There goes your "socialist" argument, Right Wing Propagandists. For almost six minutes, Obama explains to Joe The Plumber the intricacies of his tax plan. It's long and boring, but it shows how insane this campaign has become, where the phrase "spread the wealth around" is lifted to prove that Obama is a Commie.

Gimme a fuckin' break.

Straight Talk, my ass, Johnny. You're a sad, little shadow of the imaginary character you used to pretend to be.

Wake Up, All You So-Called Patriots

I can overlook the fact that she wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade. I can understand trying to oust her brother-in-law from his job in defense of her sister in the midst of a nasty custody battle. I can forgive her pretending to be a reformer when she really was in fact a strong advocate of that "bridge to nowhere," among other pork projects. I even understand the Evangelical desire to teach "intelligent design" alongside evolution. I'm even willing to turn a deaf ear to her crazy claim that the War in Iraq was a "task from God."

But when you start putting pressure on the local librarian of your small town to ban books, you've crossed a line in my America. You're not "Putting Country First," lady, unless your country is Nazi Germany.

I expect that the answer to all these charges from the fawning "base" of the Republican party will be, "Reverend Wright! William Ayers!"

Wave your flags, patriots, as you rush to fall in line behind another Cheney.

Diplomacy is for Pussies (Post # 888)

Someday soon, John McCain will be able to execute a Google without the assistance of his aides. Meantime, his aides are hard at work asking you thoughtful questions via banner "polls."

As you might expect, if you answer "Yes" on this banner, it takes you to the same place that answering "No" does - which is, as you might expect, a place to donate money to a man who would sooner bomb the Iranians than meet with them.

Got to fix this banner.

Yes. Much better.

Advertising That Will Live in Infamy

It's perfectly appropriate to reflect on the trying times our nation has been through, but let's not forget what a bunch of xenophobic bastards we were - and have the capacity to be again. The first image is a "US Army official poster" according to the fine print at the bottom. The second is just the National Cash Register Company reminding citizens to keep on hating. And these are nothing compared to the ones that depict the Japanese as buck-toothed monkeys.

I left a crappy part-time radio job not long after 9/11. It was about two weeks after the tragedy and I was being asked to record :10 spots for sponsors who were buying pre-scripted inanities like "Jack's Pizza condemns terrorism and stands with the victims of 9/11 and their families."


Actual Conversation:
Me: Aren't we capitalizing on the tragedy?
Sales Manager: That's what the terrorists WANT you to think!