Poster, 'The "Spirit of ANZAC" Calls You'

This poster was one of the first two voluntary recruitment posters to be commissioned by the New Zealand Army Department at the beginning of the Second World War. It was critical for the government to stimulate enthusiasm for voluntary enlistment, partly in the hope of avoiding conscription.

The imagery in this poster relies on the viewer's memory of the First World War when the legend of the ANZAC soldier was born. The larger-than-life ghostly figure of a First World War soldier with his lemon squeezer hat could be a father looking down on his son, the next generation, to inspire continuity in honour and commitment. The emotive 'spirit of Anzac' is called upon to persuade the viewer to enlist - not the government.

Very few examples of this poster have survived, and very few are in public collections. With the introduction of compulsory military service in June 1940, recruitment posters 'were of course abandoned, and except for a few copies retained for historical purposes no special effort was made to preserve them' (Director of Publicity to C. H. Bateson, 24 April 1941, External Affairs, series 1, 84/12/12, part 1, Archives New Zealand).