30+ Unsettling Posters of the Italian Fascist Propaganda

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Last Updated on 2022/01/11

Fascist Propaganda Posters

The Italian fascist regime soon understood the importance of communication and propaganda.

The Fascist government made extensive use of propaganda to “inspire” the nation to unity. In the early years, the main propaganda organs were Il Popolo d’Italia, a newspaper founded by Benito Mussolini in 1914. In these years, the main political target of fascist propaganda was the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), accused of being manipulated by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1937 the Ministry of Popular Culture was created. Until that year, a press office managed the propaganda.

After the First World War, Italy was an impoverished, demoralized country tormented by social wounds. Against this catastrophic backdrop, advertising made it possible to build an alternative heroic and epic narrative, capable of uniting the country in a moment of difficulty. Advertising was undoubtedly the most important means of communication of this era.

Authorities used posters and billboards to communicate major events. It was part of a complex process of indoctrination that culminated in the education of children and the control of all adult activities.

Fascist propaganda used all available media: sculpture, painting, experimental film, architecture, and even cooking. Futurism, graphics, and the experiments of the Italian artistic avant-garde were widely used by the propaganda to spread the image they wanted to give the country: a dynamic, fast, industrial nation, constantly changing towards progress. The cult of Mussolini’s personality was one of the main points of propaganda. Other important themes were expansionism and colonialism; fertility (the Italian army needed soldiers!); the fight against communism; anti-Americanism; fascist education.

Later, as times changed, new themes were insistently introduced: friendship with Germany, the army, the exaltation of war.

Related articles: Architecture under Fascism, The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, A Meal that Prevented a Suicide

Poster created to enhance and strengthen the pact between Japan, Germany, and Italy. Gino Boccasile

Fonts and colors of the fascist propaganda

The style of advertising evolved with changing historical circumstances. Futurism naturally played an important role in defining Fascist graphics. The colors are austere. The true distinguishing character of fascist graphics is movement, the propensity toward a goal. The severe colors of the soldiers and tireless workers in the factories provide a counterpoint to the rosy cheeks of families and children. As for the promotion of commercial products, the product occupies an important part of the graphic layout. Oblique typefaces, stretched diagonally, suggest an idea of speed and dynamism. When not oblique, the typefaces are massive and imposing as stone.

Authors

Gino Boccasile (1901, Bari – 1952, Milan) was an Italian illustrator, advertising and painter. Boccasile illustrated for the Italian periodicals “La Donna” (1932), “Dea”, “La Lettura” (1934), “Bertoldo” (1936), “Il Milione” (1938), “L’Illustrazione del Medico” (1939), “Ecco”, “Settebello” and “Il Dramma” (1939) and designed many book covers for publishers Mondadori and Rizzoli’. During the Second World War he bagan to create war propaganda posters.

Fascist Propanda Posters

Acquistate Prodotti Italiani!
Buy Italian Products
!
Crociera Aerea del Decennale, 1933, Luigi Martinati
Tenth Anniversary Air Cruise
Adunata Squadristi. 1939. Vittorio Pisani
Autarchia dell’acciaio
Steel self-sufficiency
Non togliete il pane ai figli dei nostri lavoratori. Acquistate prodotti italiani
Don’t take bread away from the children of our workers. Buy Italian products
Acquistate Prodotti Italiani
Buy Italian products
Duce i mutilati di guerra ti salutano
Duce, the war amputees salute you
XIX annuale di fondazione fasci di combattimento, 1937, Walter Resentera
XIX annual foundation of fasci di combattimento
Credere obbedire combattere, 1937
Believe Obey Fight
Ala Littoria S.A. Roma Linea dell’Impero, 1937
Difendila! Potrebbe essere tua madre, tua moglie, tua sorella, tua figlia.
Protect her! She could be your mother, your wife, your sister, your daughter.
Arditi Paracadutisti Aeronautica Italiana, Gino Boccasile, 1943
Italian Air Force Paratroopers
Difendilo!, 1944
Protect him! The three hands symbolize Freemasons, Communists, and Jews
Tener Duro – Sta per scoccare l’ora dell’espiazione per l’Antieuropa, Gino Boccasile, 1944
The hour of expiation is about to strike for Anti-Europe
Non Prevarranno, Gino Boccasile, 1944
They will not prevail
Onore combattimento vittoria, 1944
Honor fight victory. Italian soldier and German SS soldier move armed to the assault
Germany truly is your friend, Gino Boccasile. The poster was commissioned by the Propaganda Abteilung J. division, which was responsible for the Propaganda Staffe
Venerdì Santo 1944 Passione di cristo e di Treviso, 1944
Good Friday 1944 Passion of Christ and of Treviso. African-American aviator strikes with his fist the center of Treviso; in the background bombers in flight

Commercial Propaganda during the Fascist Regime in Italy

Autarchia! FILA, la matita italiana di qualità
Autarchy! FILA, the Italian quality pencil
Giornata della madre e del fanciullo, Marcello Dudovich 1937
Mother and Child Day
Adunata degli Avanguardisti, 1932, Carlo Vittorio Testi
Gathering of the avant-garde
Ardita FIAT
FIAT poster
AOI Llloyd Triestino.
AOI was the name of the Italian colonial empire in the Horn of Africa, proclaimed by Benito Mussolini on May 9, 1936, after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Giornata del Giocattolo Italiano
Le grandi firme, Gino Boccasile
Pastina Glutinata Buitoni, Federico Seneca
Cacao Perugina, Federico Seneca
Congresso Internazionale della Pubblicità
Aperitivo Bitter Campari
Aperitivo Bitter Campari, Fortunato Depero

More: Sino Soviet Propaganda Posters

Topics: Italian propaganda posters, Fascist propaganda posters, famous propaganda posters, fascist design, fascist fonts, futurism, history of the fascist design

Sources: Dirty Work, Wikipedia

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