Wartime Army poster designer ‘unlikely to be impressed’ by snowflake campaign

The daughter of the man behind some of Britain’s most famous Second World War Army recruitment posters has said she doubts he “would be very impressed” with the armed force’s latest campaign.

Abram Games designed a series of modern posters encouraging men and women to sign up during the war.

His most famous posters encouraged women to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, asked people in Britain to grow their own food and “use spades, not ships”, and warned soldiers: “Your talk may kill your comrades.”

He designed more than 100 posters throughout the course of the war to display to troops and British civilians.

He is also credited with inspiring subsequent Army recruitment campaigns.

The British Army’s latest campaign features a series of posters encouraging “snowflakes”, “me me me millennials” and “selfie addicts” to sign up.

Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Games’s daughter Naomi said: “I don’t think he would be very impressed with what they produced.

“His motto was maximum meaning, minimum means, and everything had to be very simple.

“I think he felt that everybody over-complicated everything, and he got the message across really quickly.

“But I think the Army have to do what they have to do, and who’s to interfere with that?”

The latest posters were controversial when they were released in January.

But the Army said figures released in February showed the poster campaign had been a “resounding success”.

In the first three weeks of January, applications to join rose to 9,700 – a five-year high.

An exhibition of Mr Games’s posters, called The Art Of Persuasion, runs from April 6 to November 24 at the National Army Museum in London.