Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

You know this propaganda poster?

While I wouldn't consider it an internet meme, the story about how this poster was rediscovered and spread is relevant to our interests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05FOB-consumed-t.html

That's pretty interesting. I didn't know it was so obscure when it started. I had seen the poster on a few websites around 2008, then I went to an art fair on my birthday last June and saw someone selling their own screen-printed post cards with the same graphic. I thought, "I don't know where this comes from, but I keep seeing it everywhere." So I bought one.

Here's a fun example of a few variations on it.

I think this is really straddling the line between Internet Meme and physical art meme, especially since the image didn't rise to high recognition until after the year 2000. People have been seeing it and creating new instances both as physical works and digital, at pretty much the same time.