Skip to main content

When Japs were Coming: WW II British Ads for India

A collection of World War II ads dated 1942 published in The Indian Express by the British Government as part of its war efforts and for taking on Congress challenge.

A really good Ad. The image is just too in-genius. Suited-Booted Smiling Japanese and a simple Indian villager. Contrasts of the image drive home the message shockingly well. July 22, 1942.
Portrait of the enemy. "The Jap. soldier moves through the jungle paths wearing singlet and shorts, rubber-soled canvas shoes, and tin hat. He carries a sub-machine gun, spare ammunition, stick grenades, water bottle and a machete (heavy bush knife) for hacking his way." January 16, 1942.
And portrait of the enemy inside.

August 2, 1942

August 1, 1942

January 16, 1942

Figting Goondas in December 1942

War needs money.





And Men.
Recruitment ad for Indian Air Force. February 17, 1942


-0-
Labels:

Comments

  1. VijayDec 11, 2010, 3:11:00 AM

    Reading this, it almost feels like India used to be a Western country.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinayak RazdanDec 11, 2010, 1:58:00 PM

    Maybe some parts of India were always Western. Or maybe this was always the case for English media . I remember reading an interesting account by one of the oldest residents of CP (don't have the link) recalling how on the eve of 15 August 1947 they went of see a cabaret at some place in CP.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HarbinderJan 4, 2011, 3:33:00 PM

    Amazing work Vinayak, Its really surprising what people reading the ad on Joystick would have felt. Really surprising the ads a mroe like what is relevant today. Cant imagine if you remember the movies of those days - cannot correlate.
    Thanks for bringing this up to the people.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I always like to hear back :)
However, irrelevant comments and irrelevant links will not be published. Needless to say, same goes for abusive comment and spam. Leaving back links related to the topic is encouraged. I know it can be tempting but try not to leave your email ids, phone nos and CVs in the comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Famous Old Faces of Doordarshan

Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment. [ Update 1 : Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by olio-gallimaufry ] [ Update 2 : Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul. Sept, 2010.] [ Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers   of     “The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan ” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of  Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010]  Pratima Puri. Believed to be the first Doordarshan reader.
175 comments
Read more

Indian Cigarette Vintage Ads

He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”"You what?”"I stopped. Three days ago. Cold. That’s it. You just make the life choice.” Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it. He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smoked…Paradoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once. It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met… While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette. And he felt like a cig...
21 comments
Read more

Kishore Kumar, Yodel-ay-ee-oooo Songs, A List

*Updated with corrections pointed out by Bart Plantenga , author of some incredible book on Yodeling including Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World. -0- Kishore Kumar 's brother Anoop Kumar, who we basically know for the line ' O manu tera toh hua ab mera kya hoga ', used to own lots of Austrian music records. And from these records, Kishore Kumar picked up the art of Yodel singing, an art perfected in bathroom and then introduced by him to the world of Hindi film music. According to his biography 'Kishore Kumar: method in madness‎ ' by Derek Bose, "Kishore was a fan of the Swiss singer Tex Norton [* Tex Morton, an Australian cowboy born in New Zealand who sang  in the gene autry / Jimmie Rodgers style ] and the Australian Jimmy Rogers [* Jimmie Rodgers , perhaps the most American and one of the most famous yodelers in the world, famous for his blue yodels ] as well." Although most of these songs by Kishore Kumar are t...
18 comments
Read more