TOW #21 - Hunger Games Poster - Visual

This week, I thought it would be nice to do something different than my usual types of posts. This is an advertisement for one of the Hunger Games movies, and I found it interesting because although this is actually promoting the movie, it's presented as a propaganda poster for the Capitol. The artist used the strategy of making the image simple, with only one main thing to focus on - the child in the center. Under the District 12 logo is a message that says "The Capitol salutes its citizens of the mining district". This is an interesting choice because this would a time at which the citizens of the District would be angry with the Capitol and they often feel out of favor, both in the Hunger Games and in other things. This message would be meant to make them feel appreciated. It's also interesting to see the child dirty and in a miner's outfit, which isn't something you would expect. It is also ironic how the child has an apple which appears to be a reward for doing work, while canonically in the series, almost everyone in District 12 is starving and wouldn't have enough food. This child looks healthy and fairly happy, which may not necessarily actually be the best representation of the District itself but might have been useful in inspiring hope. However, it seems to be a bit contrary to the purpose, since the child is shown as dirty and messy, which contrasts with the innocence of the child and their face. It doesn't seem like a positive thing to allow children to be supporting manual labor, especially considering how dangerous the job of mining is. I don't feel like this ad would have been effective had it actually been used as propaganda, because the District would not have taken the message seriously, and they most likely would not have approved of the miner child, because they all risk their lives in the mines and the Capitol would be trying to trivialize that. As a movie poster, it's completely different. It makes the viewer think about the advertisement and think about it in relation to the movie, which would probably be more effective than just the actors' faces.