NYA Propaganda

The Alphabet Soup Agency our poster represents is the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA helped provide education, work, and recreation programs for youths aged 16 to 25 during this period. This New Deal agency operated from June 26, 1935 until it was dissolved in 1943. The propaganda techniques we used in our poster are symbolism, virtue word, color, and symbol. The message our poster conveys is that the NYA can help provide youths with education or work experience and put them on their feet. Youths can trust the NYA to give them a push and assist them until they are able to work on their own. With the programs that the NYA offers, youths would be able to receive education and gain working experience.
The slogan of the poster
is, “Your Door to Success.” This means that the NYA is the door that will lead to success. After stepping through the door, you would later on achieve. During this time, many students withdrew from school due to financial issues and schools not having enough fundings. With the help of the NYA, students were granted education in exchange for part time jobs in various sectors of the education system. The NYA also provided training and long-term employments in many different fields. Through this “door”, many were able to become successful and achieved what they couldn’t have done without the NYA. We chose these images, symbolism, and colors because we felt that they really depicted the message we were trying to reveal to the audience.
The NYA is illustrated as a door on the poster. The boy on the left is sad because he had to drop out of school due to his family’s financial issues during the Depression. On the right is a businessman who achieved with the assistance of the NYA. In the middle of the poster, is a figure stepping through the door, half dressed in rags and half in a graduation cap and gown. Based on this entire image, it is shown that after stepping through the door or NYA, the person became successful. We used red, white, and blue to evoke a somewhat patriotic feel. The audience would see the colors and think of the United States and its current situation and society.
We believe that this poster is effective in persuading people to support the NYA because many people would also want to be successful like the figure on the poster. Youths would find the NYA very supportive in helping them reach their goals and allowing them to have opportunities they would not be able to have during this time period. When seeing how a poor boy reached success with the help of the NYA, other youths would very likely want to do the same. With this reaction from the audience, the poster has successfully persuaded the audience to support the
NYA.