The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. is hosting an exhibition of public health posters spanning decades and , these prints warn an unsuspecting public about the evil germs and the host organisms who love them. The exhibit runs through December 19th. The show was reviewed in the New York Times:
Much of the exhibition suggests a mash-up of advertising and public health. The posters tried to convey the danger of disease and get people to change their behavior, said the curator, Michael Sappol, a historian at the library of medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health.
But “they’re also about the pleasure of the image,” he continued, adding, “There have been some very sexy, colorful, playful posters about some very serious diseases.”
A link to the full New York Times review is here.
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Mercy, she sure looks like a bag of trouble…
Prior to seeing that poster, I had no experience with the phrase, “a bag of trouble”. One can only assume it’s a reference to the woman’s bohemian lifestyle (note her cigarette and beret).
I wonder what other ills we can package and carry with us? A sack of sorrows.. A tote of planar fasciitis..
a hat-box of the clap?
depending on the year of the poster, I would guess the “bag of trouble” is supposed to be a french woman (cigarette, beret, hairdo) of potentially loose morals (sultry look and plucked eyebrows), and that the poster was aimed at american soldiers stationed in france during world war II.
was “a bag of trouble” a more common everyday phrase then than it is now… ? or would it have had the ickily literal reading that I think we’re giving it in 2008?