Early Czech Propaganda Films

Focus on Czech Animation I.



EARLY CZECH PROPAGANDA FILMS



The Czechoslovakian propaganda film genre from before World War II is one of those treats featured in this year’s Animateka programme that is interesting from several perspectives. First of all, it represents an important historical document of animation in Eastern Europe. At the same time, it sheds light on the development of propaganda, propaganda tools, as well as techniques of persuasion and manipulation. The films are an excellent example of how propaganda was used to promote certain products in a socialist economy.
In the present socio-political context and compared to contemporary animation films, such an antiquated animation technique turns out to be quite shocking at first glance. Silent black-and-white advertisements, employing – at least in part – live piano accompaniment, were the norm back then. Differences between advertisement techniques past and present naturally abound. In spite of this, certain key propaganda features have remained the same, making some advertising approaches very humorous, especially those that parallel today’s TV adverts.


When trying to understand the differences between propaganda then and now, it is worth pointing out certain persuasion and advert formatting techniques, which could be said to be representative of socialist values. Above all, they display an altogether different relationship between people and things, as we know them today.
One such example were the adverts for Ceres margarine, where the differences between past and present advertising approaches for this product are starkest. The structure of the advert plainly serves to highlight the 100 % fat content of the margarine, describing it as the most nutritious food, which also has the best calorie-to-price ratio (a full 600 calories for 1 Czechoslovak koruna).

 

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The six minute advert is a competition between an egg, a goose, chocolate, American pork fat, flower and Ceres margarine. The latter wins in all the categories (nutritional value, percentage of fat, and price). This form of very explicit advertising showcases all the product’s positive characteristics, which are the mirror opposite of what would be stressed in today’s ads. Nowadays, margarine’s competitive advantage is supposed to lie in its low-fat content and the lack of cholesterol, while the nutritional value is all but ignored, since the energy content of food (how much the consumer gains per price unit) is far less important. The taste, coupled with its low caloric value and bundled up in healthy lifestyle-promoting discourse, is what truly counts.


Even though this particular short film strives to be very realistic, this turns out not to be the case with the other featured films. The latter largely cross the border into fantasy. The film The Rise of the Beets particularly stands out. The beets growing in a farmer’s field discover that the farmer isn’t using the right fertilizer, all the while observing that the neighbouring beet patch has grown remarkably plump. The beets sneak into the neighbouring field under the cover of night in order to discover the secret to growing so well. Upon returning to their own patch, the beets opt for a true Leninist strategy, rebelling against the farmer and demanding artificial fertilizer for all beets.

The film, like the ones preceding it, very explicitly points out all the advantages of artificial fertilizer compared to natural alternatives. At closer inspection, it nonetheless becomes clear that the fable is a very specific one, functioning as a very successful propaganda technique in the context of the erstwhile political system. This is mainly due to the strong Soviet influences of the time. Today, it would most probably be faced with an altogether different reception.

 

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The structure of the films is quite unique. Even though the adverts are among the very first made, the animation and story line do not really suffer as a consequence. The films aim to present the characteristics of the product to the viewer in a very amusing way. Above all, they present the product as a novelty item, for example the radio, which was quite new to many people back then.

The radio advert shows several musicians playing different instruments. These are then turned into a small box by a magician, which is revealed to be a Telefunkel radio. The imagery, which carries a strong message and presents the device to the viewer in an imaginary way, is superbly blended with good storytelling and artfully-executed surreal animation. All this serves to try and showcase the magical nature of this new device.

 

In the past, animated films were certainly produced in markedly different ways than they are now. However, it would be an overstatement to say that filmed advertisements had more aesthetic value back then and that this has been altogether lost in this day and age. On the other hand, these products, which have a very unique cultural background, represent an excellent testament of another time, when it was much easier to conceive that cinematic art could be combined with the functional and utilitarian. This allowed the author and artist to digress much more from certain mainstream ideas, which we are more or less forced to watch today because of the endless desire of advertisers and the media to achieve higher ratings and consequently maximum profits.

 

 

Matjaž Pinter

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