Why is the uncle Sam poster famous?
It’s not the Uncle Sam version of the poster that is famous. It’s a direct copy of the one used by Britain on the outbreak of WW1 and featuring Lord Kitchener, Uncle Sam replacing Kitchener in the US version.Otherwise, both posters are almost exactly the same, down to the finger pointed at the reader and the “YOU” in capital letters. Britain had a small, all volunteer army when WW1 began, so needed to recruit soldiers quickly. The Kitchener poster encouraged almost a million volunteers in little more than a month, and was thus the most successful and effective poster campaign ever – which is why the US copied it for recruitment purpose 3 years later, when they entered the war.
