“Deserve Victory”

The image of the fabled leader, his finger pointed at the viewer in admonition, is one of the most famous political images of the 20th Century. It dates back to WWI, when British artists created the image of Lord Kitchener exhorting the troops to action. It has seen many iterations, including the celebrated "Uncle Sam" version.

This image is of British leader Winston Churchill, and was commissioned for His Majesty George VI’s government during World War II. The original saying, "Deserve Victory," was pulled from the writings of Churchill himself:

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. We cannot guarantee victory, but only deserve it."

It is noteworthy that Churchill, like other Western leaders of the era, did not resort to fantastic portrayals of themselves to communicate their message. This stands in marked contrast to the propaganda posters of Nazi Germany, which regularly lionized Hitler, evoking images of a steely Teutonic warrior far removed from the real man, who was frustrated and insecure.

The Churchill poster also poignantly evokes its protagonist’s age. In so doing, initmates that the great leader "was just like" the average citizen – a very effective persuasion technique. The bowtie and simple, black and white color scheme add still more to the image’s effect.