I noticed this classic piece of World War I propaganda while checking out Darrin (sic) Hodges’ Anglo-Australian National Community Council website yesterday.

Hodges, it must be said, is an intriguing fellow. Legend has it he founded the AANCC after being denied membership to the Canberra chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, on the basis that he was too ignorant and mean-spirited, and that he spelled “abbows” incorrectly on his application form.

This post isn’t about Hodges, though — if I wanted to discuss excruciating and embarrassing turds, I’d make an appointment to see a proctologist. Rather, it concerns an interesting tale about the creator of this propaganda poster, Australian artist Frederick William Leist (1873–1945).

Fred Leist rose to prominence in the 1890s as an illustrator for The Bulletin and the Sydney Mail. He moved to London in the early 1900s to pursue his painting career, and found some success there.

But like most artists, Leist found that to make ends meet he had to supplement his art with commissions and odd jobs — and his oddest job of all was designing recruiting posters during World War I.

The poster above was his last, due to a little-known misunderstanding.

In 1916 the War Office commissioned a piece from Leist entitled Australian Chivalry. The creative brief for the poster took the form of a telegraph, which — due to Leist’s experience and exemplary record with the Office — dispensed with the usual detailed instructions and simply requested a “depiction of Digger with crusader; tone more gay than gruesome”.

The wording proved most unfortunate: the War Office couldn’t have known that Leist was well ahead of his time lexicologically; likewise, Leist couldn’t have known that the term “gay” wouldn’t come into popular usage as a euphemism for homosexual for several decades.

An understandably confused Leist, who felt somewhat indebted to the War Office, didn’t want to appear foolish by requesting clarification; so he set about creating three slightly different paintings that would work either as a series or as individual posters, depending on which option best reflected his employer’s concept.

The staunchly conservative War Office was mortified by the posters Leist submitted, but a looming print deadline meant recommissioning the job was not an option. They reluctantly chose the least questionable of the three, paid Leist and never sought his services again.

The complete set was thought to have been lost or destroyed, but as luck would have it was recently discovered on my PC. CLICK HERE to view it.

Sick of boring old Dick and Jane readers? Stuck for Christmas stocking-fillers? Fed up with the fascist media / Maoist teachers? Why not try some ‘political education texts for kids’. Reminiscent of those What’s Happening to Me? sex-ed books we sniggered at back in the 80s, all are cute, informative and (of course) thoroughly objective. There’s wonderful titles such as Why Mommy is a Democrat, Why War is a never a Good Idea and The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming.

Our conservative friends shouldn’t feel left out. Also available is Help Mom! There are Liberals under My Bed (a possible crossover into the horror genre Down Under). For Bolt and Blair, there’s The Sky is Not Falling: Why it’s OK to chill about Global Warming (it’s blurb claims to give “kids the scoop, not just about global warming, but the real-world consequences of the Left’s responses to it”). At least we now know what’s on the coffee table at AWH headquarters.

The children of Australia are missing out and need their own titles, like Mummy, When’s the Election? and Why Kevin says Executing People is Wrong, except in Other Countries, Unless they are Australians. Suggestions?

Got home from work this afternoon and found this (PDF) government propaganda information booklet in the post box. You know it’s an information booklet because the contents page says so.

But before we read a single word of information or guidance to parents about drugs we have to scan through a page containing lots of information about the Man Of Steel behind the Drugs Policy Of Steel.

Not to mention lots of information about just how Tough On Drugs™ the Howard government has been.

The next fifteen-or-so pages is a bunch of generic drug info that looks like its been lifted straight from Wikipedia and whacked together in Publisher with some Getty images of needles and white powder.

Then on page 18 comes the real reason for the booklet.

The next four pages are nothing more than coalition campaigning with bold declarations about government spending and initiatives over the life of the coalition government.

Everyone knows that governments-of-the-day use taxpayer money for partisan advertising but reading shite like this, and thinking about how much taxpayer coin was spent producing and posting it, makes my blood boil. And of course, the fact this shows up on my doorstep less than two months before an election is a total coincidence.