Radio Free Europe Advertising Campaign 1960's?

[StefanM]

Any ideas which Advertising Agency produced this 1965 advertisement for the Radio Free Europe fund raising campaign?



Above: This 1965 magazine advertisement shows a photograph of barbed wire with the rhetorical question: "How do you get the truth through?" The answer in the advertisement body text is:

The Iron Curtain isn't soundproof ... Radio Free Europe is a bridge between two blocks: the captive and the free. Most important: Radio Free Europe -- because it exists and continues to exist -- helps millions hold onto the will for freedom and the drive for freedom ... Whatever you can contribute will mean a great deal to a good many people behind the Iron Curtain.

Below: Another version using the main headline; "The Iron Curtain Isn't Soundproof"



Below: "The Iron Curtain Isn't Soundproof" themed poster for bus or subway sign.




Below: Another great fund-raising advertising poster for the RFE's "Crusade For Freedom"campaign... presumably by the same advertising agency?



As RFE was a CIA backed operation did the CIA employ a specific advertising agency to handle of its advertising/PR campaigns during the Cold War period?

Any information will be very welcome and appreciated

Update = = = =

"The voluntarist and privately operated Advertising Council, for example, cooperated with the government in several Cold War campaigns promoting civil defense, the “ground observer corps,” and the Crusade for Freedom, a funding drive to support the CIA-orchestrated broadcasts of Radio Free Europe."

and...

"The Advertising Council financed a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign asking Americans to “help truth fight Communism” by donating “freedom dollars” to the Crusade. Appeals from celebrities were heard on the radio, posters were plastered on buses and subways, and parades were organized stressing the theme of freedom for the satellite peoples."

Source: Hearts and Minds :The Unconventional Cold War by Kenneth Osgood

Now just need to find out who else made up the Advertising Council; J. Walter Thompson & Co. (JWT) and Benton and Bowles were two memeber ad. agencies.

[StefanM]

"The Crusade for Freedom" was an American propaganda campaign operating from 1950–1960. Its public goal was to raise funds for Radio Free Europe; it also served to conceal the CIA's funding of Radio Free Europe and to generate domestic support for American Cold War policies.



Above: Crusade for Freedom advertising truck, 1951.

The CIA provided much of the Crusade for Freedom's funding, spending $5 million in five years. According to Christopher Simpson's Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War, the CIA, through the Crusade became the biggest political advertiser in the United States during this period.

Crusade for Freedom - Wikipedia

update = = = =

J. Walter Thompson & Co. (JWT) were the volunteer advertising agency who created the multimillion dollar "The Crusade for Freedom" campaign with great tag-lines such as "Freedom is not Free", "The one thing the Iron Curtain can't keep out - TRUTH!" and "Help air the truth!" all funded by "Truth Dollars".

[meyle77]

My grandmother used to listen to it :-)

[StefanM]

"...and the truth shall make them free!"

"Crusade for Freedom" Advertising campaign - April, 1956 Good Housekeeping Magazine.

[SteveR]

It was a good thing.

[hassiman]

An old friend of mine Richard H Cummings had the job of "Head of Security" Radio Free Europe Berlin throughout the height of the cold war. was actually one of the Company's most important agents for many years. He has writte a number of excellent books on the subject if you are interested. Below is a link to one of them. A really brave guy....

History Book Review: Cold War Radio by Richard H Cummings (ISBN 9780786441389) - The History Herald

[StefanM]

An old friend of mine Richard H Cummings had the job of "Head of Security" Radio Free Europe Berlin throughout the height of the cold war. was actually one of the Company's most important agents for many years. He has writte a number of excellent books on the subject if you are interested. Below is a link to one of them. A really brave guy....

History Book Review: Cold War Radio by Richard H Cummings (ISBN 9780786441389) - The History Herald

Many thanks for the book recommendation!

Wasn't RFE based in Munich rather than Berlin?

Attached photo of Free Europe Press and Radio free Europe Headquarters – Munich

[StefanM]

The Czech Freedom Tank

"The Iron Curtain, with rows of barbed wire, armed patrols, land mines and guard towers, did not stop the flow of persons who were determined in finding ways to "escape" the “Communist-dominated” countries of East Europe.

One daring and ingenious method was crashing through the Iron Curtain in a “Freedom Tank.” The episode was then used to rally Americans behind the Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe.

After two years of planning and preparation, on July 25, 1953, a World War Two German “armored car,” covered with foliage for camouflage, driven by Vaclav Uhlik, and carrying seven passengers, rolled over three rows of barbed wire of the Iron Curtain near the Bavarian town of Waldmuenchen, along the Czechoslovakia-German border.

Vaclav Uhlik, his wife and two children, two former Czech soldiers Walter Hora and Vaclav Krejciri, Josef Pisarik, and Libuse Hrdonkova were in the vehicle."

Above: The Uhlík family standing by the “Freedom Tank” converted from a Austrian artillery Saurer RR-7 transport. The Uhlíks later arranged safe passage to the US and became American citizens. The Freedom Tank was paraded around the US under the "Crusade for Freedom" campaign banner and the commorative metal badge below was produced at some time.



I wonder what eventually became of the "Freedom Tank" and where it might be now?

[StefanM]

"Truth Dollars" advertisement.

[JUhlikTomchak]

If you'd like more information, feel free to contact me. Vaclav was my grandfather, the young boy in the photo above is my dad.