Octupus Propaganda Posters

Octopus for some reason seems to be the default representation of evil in propaganda posters. Not sure why, Octopi are pretty benign animals. First example, the Japanese octopus is depicted as grabbing hold of the Philippines.

The analogy of tentacles as possessive arms. It also served to dehumanize the enemy. My theory.

I presume it represents imperialism, the many tentacles gripping places they have no business being in.

They can grab multiple far away things at once

WW1-era poster. The Russian octopus seizes control of Europe.

WW1-era poster. The German octopus (which honestly looks adorable in my opinion) is attacked on both sides by Russia and France.

In "Against His-story, Against Leviathan", Fredy Perlman uses the image of an octopus to represent the cultural reach of ocean faring and sea based civilizations(where land based civilizations are more of a giant worm). I don't agree with the rest of his book but I've always appreciated that analogy.

WW2-era poster depicting the United States as a massive octopus. Note that the Japanese sword is slicing off the arms.

The Mormon Octopus enslaves the women of Utah!

It's a phalus-like shape. Many tentacles symbolize overwhelming sexual potency.

It's an outcry of supressed libido against sensual destructive forces of nature.

Did they seriously think imperial russia was capable of pulling this off?

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That's rather pointless, octopi can regrow cut limbs

The Railroad Monopoly takes hold of California.

Japanese poster from the Russo-Japanese War. Note that Russia is depicted as an octopus.

Is this the map that steampunk ww1 map was based off of?

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hot

Ironic, considering thats exactly what the US navy did after pearl harbor

American octopus preparing to take over what appears to be France?

I don't think it "appears" to be France but rather it is France in the most explicit, obvious way.

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

The primordial serpent has long been a symbol of "the enemy." The octopus with its serpent-like tentacles and high intelligence residing in the dark depths of an unconquerable ocean fits into this role well. The prevalence of the leviathan and the kraken is further evidence of this I think.

Someone post hentai before I get bored

The Soviet Octopus reaches into the Middle-East.

What is the context here, what did France think we were gonna do?

This, there is a reason early aliens in sci-fi looked like octopuses

This one is odd. It's clearly supposed to be Germany and Austria-Hungary, but they aren't grabbing at other countries. They're just holding onto their own territory.

Oh, wait, the German octopus has a tentacle in Belgium and the Austro-Hungarian octopus is reaching into Serbia. Got it.

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That Austria-Hungary octopus is looking pretty sad.

Man, Squidward just doesn't look the same when out of the water

>what did France think we were gonna do?
protect them from the Russians in a way that didn't allow De Gaulle to whine about how important France is

He does look pretty cute, wook ad da wittle prussia-puss

Mine is not quite an octuopus, but it's always funny seeing the Entente cry about subjugated peoples. Great thread btw.

>new zealand didn't get a lion
>the fucking falklands did
Man, the Kiwi's really weren't appreciated by anyone, were they?

HOT

Aww why they stabbing that cute ol' octo :(

Looks like the Australia lion includes NZ.

I am an idiot.

...or you simply overlooked it...

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This is an anti-semitic poster from Denmark. Does anyone know whether or not this was created during the Nazi occupation?

Not an octopus, but related.

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this is from the PCF, French Communist Party
so they thought that we were going to destroy communism
and we did
they were right about turning France into an American colony too....

Not entirely sure on this one, most likely 1933-1945, it depicts a Jewish-British octopus which is killed by spears on which is written 'truth' and 'enlightenment'.

Man, political cartooning really hasn't come far at all.

true.

This is a modern example, criticizing the fact that most media outlets are owned and controlled by few entities/persons.

'NSA octopus' (self-explanatory)

This one is cool, imo, criticizing the Appeasement policies of the UK and France.

It's a reference to tentacle rape.

Arab anti-Jewish / anti-Israel propaganda

Another modern one: Anti-Russian / anti-Putin propaganda depicting Putin as octopus.
That's my last one for now

fpbp

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>No ! France will not be colonised
>Americans in America
> edited by the French communist party
They were completely right btw, too bad modern communists are barely socio-democrats here nowadays. They were pretty based back in the day.

>Nine arms

cool that America's being represented by a bison here, always thought they'd be a better mascot than another fucking bird of prey like almost every other country

I don't get it

That's because Prussia-Pus is about to take hold of it

Maybe if A-H got it shit together it wouldn't have to rely on every increasing German support.

the fuck is going on with denmark

im guessing its because the tentacles all have a mind of their own, but theyre still being controlled from a center. which is a good representation of a country.
also the fact that an octopus looks so alien and its arms latch onto everything it gets close to makes it pretty threatening/scary.
using animals to represent something isnt exactly uncommon. it was only a matter of time before the octopus caught on.