ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of World War II, Aims of Industry emerged as a significant propaganda organization. Through films, cartoons and public discussions it combined the interests of corporations, local businessmen and consumer groups in opposition to austerity. While sharing many rhetorical and visual idioms of the films produced by the British state, Aims of Industry’s propaganda favoured the international over the domestic, exchange over production and individualism against restraint. Beside its role in the longer-term resurgence of economic liberalism, Aims’ story also illustrates how the pedagogic norms of the Documentary Film Movement were elbowed aside by hidden persuading, how privacy and consumption began to alter the UK’s media culture, and how de-industrialization eroded the modernist foundations of British documentary.
