Hook: Communism. In America, a dirty word. But have you ever stopped and ask why you classify it as such?

Context:

• The civic artifact being discussed is a material object. A poster from the Cold War era that depicts “The Red Menace” as a horror film advertisement. However, the artifact also involves the actions and emotions that it caused.  It emerged under specific cultural conditions that, upon its release, would influence the American people that the Soviet’s (what the government believed to be) expansionist policies regarding communism should be ended as a means of protecting others.
• It is unclear who produced this particular advertisement, however, it can be assumed that their reasons behind doing so would revolve around increasing anti-communist sentiment and influencing public opinion in support of doctrines and actions against the Soviets abroad.

Problem:

• Any piece of culture that inspires discourse or changes opinions should have the opportunity to be discussed. For this artifact, the length of the Cold War and the maintaining of U.S. government-funded projects and actions against the USSR must have come from Congress, who felt that these actions would please their constituents. Therefore, propaganda such as this poster must have influenced mass American opinion to the point where international intervention was encouraged.
• In particular, this artifact counts on audience commonplaces in a way not typically looked at, by basing its message off of a horror-movie theme. Most artifacts of American propaganda from this time period involve the fear of Communists hurting others or taking control, but this poster inspires fear on a different level. The association between horror movies and the spread of communism results in a fear based in something that the audience is familiar with. Horror movies started being played in the early 1900’s, so the public is well accustomed to advertisements for the films. Adjusting the topic of the ad is simple, but it can be incredibly influential as the audience likens communism to Godzilla, Psycho, zombies, or the Exorcist.

Thesis: The use of anti-communist propaganda throughout the post-World War Two era influenced public opinion against the Soviet Union in order to increase public approval on interventionist policies abroad. This poster in particular utilizes the audience commonplace of the fear present when viewing horror movies, to the point where it aids in influencing public opinion against the Soviet Union and their support of communist expansion.

Body:

• The commonplace active in this artifact is the fear generated by horror movies. The specific audience that this would gear to is that of the politically active American public. Those who are unaware of the current political climate may not understand or recognize the common slang for communism, “The Red Menace”, and be confused by the poster. They may recognize it as a regular horror poster and not what it truly is – propaganda against a specific country in order to influence public opinion in favor of stopping it.
• The artifact takes advantage of the commonplace primarily through the use of pathos. By inspiring emotions typically recognized when watching a horror movie or seeing an advertisement for one, it thereby influences the audience’s viewpoint of the topic.
• In terms of the emotions appealed to, it mainly identifies with fear, or at least hesitation. Emotions typically felt by an audience when viewing a horror film or thinking about the villain of one.
• The argument present in this civic artifact is an enthymeme. It relies on the audience to hold the presupposition of a hesitation or fear towards horror movies in order to make the argument and connection between the topic of the artifact (the negative implications of communism) and the person viewing it.
• It primarily utilizes a hook. By taking advantage of a phrase, advertised at the frontal point of a piece of propaganda, people will be able to better remember and recall the phrase when addressing the topic later.

Conclusion:

• This artifact must be discussed because it, and others like it, greatly impacted American action abroad in the post-World War Two era, leading the international community towards increased globalization and drawing the U.S. further from its pre-World War position of isolationism. But aside from the greater international implications, propaganda against communism has resulted in deep-seated sentiment against the USSR, Russia, and communism as an ideology, as something that is inherently negative. No, communism has never truly succeeded in a long-term setting, but there were many other reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union that involved pressure from the United States aside from the communist basis of the USSR.
• Overall, the use of anti-communist propaganda throughout the Cold War era resulted in an ingrained negative viewpoint towards “The Red Menace”. For this specific civic artifact, the use of a horror-movie basis results in an association that creates fear and hesitation towards the depicted villain, and recognition as well as further analysis of such propaganda may result in us no longer viewing communism as a “dirty word”.