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La Police vous parle tous les soirs à 20h.

Poster
1968 (Designed and printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

When French national radio and television went on strike in 1968, they commissioned posters from the French art students who formed the Atelier Populaire in Paris. During the strike, members of the Ministry for Home Affairs ran television and radio news bulletins at the request of the government. Many felt that they couldn't trust the pro-government propaganda coming over the air waves.
The message of this poster, produced at the height of political unrest, is that the television news is a form of thought control. Televisual messages were presented as all the more manipulative by contrast with the directness of this poster: the medium works to reinforce the meaning.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • La Police vous parle tous les soirs à 20h. (assigned by artist)
  • The Police speak to you every evening at 8.00 (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Lithograph
Brief description
Anti-French media poster produced by Atelier Populaire, Paris. France, 1968.
Physical description
Text on three lines across upper margin. Image of a police officer wearing a helmet, the nose of his rifle seen behind his shoulder, speaking into an ORTF (French National Radio and Television) microphone.
Dimensions
  • Height: 61.8cm
  • Width: 45.9cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • LA POLICE VOUS PARLE/ tous les soirs/ à 20 h.
  • ORTF (above microphone)
Credit line
Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko
Production
made by students at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (poster workshop of the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs)
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
When French national radio and television went on strike in 1968, they commissioned posters from the French art students who formed the Atelier Populaire in Paris. During the strike, members of the Ministry for Home Affairs ran television and radio news bulletins at the request of the government. Many felt that they couldn't trust the pro-government propaganda coming over the air waves.
The message of this poster, produced at the height of political unrest, is that the television news is a form of thought control. Televisual messages were presented as all the more manipulative by contrast with the directness of this poster: the medium works to reinforce the meaning.
Associated object
E.228-1985 (Duplicate)
Bibliographic references
  • 'Texts and posters by Atelier Populaire: Posters from the Revolution - Paris, May 1968' by Atelier Populaire. London: Dobson. 1969.
  • Crowley, David and Jane Pavitt, Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970, London: V&A Publishing, 2008. ISBN:9781851775439
Other number
LS.1375 - Leslie Schreyer Loan Number
Collection
Accession number
E.671-2004

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Record createdAugust 12, 2004
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