Australian
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First Victory Home Loan: Squander Bug (1945)

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Meet the Squander Bug education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

This animated propaganda film from 1945 was used to persuade Australians to invest their savings in the national war chest. The Squander Bug, complete with a large stomach covered in swastikas, is told by Hitler 'Make them waste their money. Make them spend’. The Squander Bug is shown coming out of a woman’s handbag and sitting on a cash register with the word 'spend’. It also sits on a man’s shoulder and whispers encouragement to spend.

Headlines are flashed on the screen 'Australia needs your money’, 'Your savings will help to build planes’, and 'Every pound you save helps to win the war’. The film urges Australians to join their local war savings group. The advertisement ends with a rifle shooting the Squander Bug and a super title saying, 'Smash the Squander Bug but keep on buying war savings certificates or war savings stamps’.

Curator’s notes

by Elizabeth Taggart-Speers

This animated propaganda film shows an evil looking creature called the Squander Bug urging people to spend all their money instead of donating it to the war effort. By doing this, the film portrays spending your money as unpatriotic, greedy and evil and encourages Australians to donate their savings to the war saving effort.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows an animated advertisement from 1945 featuring a fictitious character called the 'Squander Bug’. Half insect and half devil, with a plump belly covered in swastikas, the Squander Bug dances with mirth. Hitler appears, urging the bug to 'Make them waste their money. Make them spend’. Across a map of Australia, slogans encourage Australians to give to the war effort rather than waste their money. A cheque signed by John Citizen appears, money piles up and is transformed into a tank, and artillery obliterates the Squander Bug. The clip is in black and white.

Educational value points

  • The advertisement was created to publicise the Australian Government’s campaign to secure funds for the war effort. To pay for the production of aircraft and munitions, the Government required more money than tax-funded revenue supplied. As a solution, the Government launched a number of war loans aimed at raising the additional funds needed. War loan drives, known as Liberty Loans (and, from 1944, Victory Loans), were implemented to encourage people to invest in war bonds, which would mature with interest after the War. During the course of the War, 12 major government war loans were offered to the Australian public.
  • Propaganda films are films that are openly subjective and are designed to persuade, rather than inform and Squander Bug is an example of this. Squander Bug was created by the Australian Government to encourage the public not to waste scarce resources, but rather to 'dig deep’ and invest their money in various war savings schemes. It uses common propaganda techniques, including emotive language, and the use of slogans, stereotypes and symbols to infer negative or positive qualities. The Squander Bug has the ears and tail of the devil and its belly is covered in Nazi swastikas. The advertisement is deliberately designed to evoke an emotional response based on fear. The inverse of its message to save for victory is that anyone who does not save for the war effort is actually helping the enemy.
  • Squander Bug is an example of traditional cell animation, involving hand-drawing and painting transparent layers, or cells, which are then overlaid. In traditional animation, every frame that contained movement had to be fully redrawn, making it a very time-consuming and expensive process. Invented in 1915 by Earl Hurd and John Bray, cell animation was an important innovation. Popular examples of traditional cell animation are Warner Bros, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.