It Is Nice in the Surf, but What About the Men in the Trenches?

Why it works

Australia relied entirely on volunteers for its First World War army, so its recruiting posters had to persuade and shame rather than order, and this one finds its audience at the beach. D. H. Souter shows a smiling young man swimming through the breakers under the words "It is nice in the surf", before the copy turns: "but what about the men in the trenches? Go and help." The setting is the argument: the poster meets young men in their leisure time and makes the pleasure itself feel like evidence against them. It was issued by the Win the War League, whose badge sits in the corner; the Imperial War Museums records that the league was set up by the Women's State Recruiting Committee in Adelaide and asked members to sign a pledge. It is studied as a sharp piece of contextual targeting and a guilt appeal built on the contrast between two places. The Australian War Memorial, the Imperial War Museums and the Library of Congress hold copies.