During the San Francisco State University BSU and TWLF students strike during 1968 through 1969, police officers were sent down in riot gear to keep the students under control. They carried batons, wore face masks, had tear gas, and shotguns. Students during this strike were fighting for BE (black studies and ethnic studies courses) and also an end to racist admission policies in the school. During this protest, a student at SF State University named Dennis Beal created the poster, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” which is a background of bold colors of red, white, and black. On the poster is a drawing of a police officer with a rather disturbing joyful look on his face holding what appears to be a baton while the words on the poster say “happiness is a warm club” referring to the baton.

The phrase of this poster was not created out of the blue but was actually taken from the song by The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun”. The lore does not stop there, one of The Beatles members, John Lenon explained that the title of their song actually came from an article that was in the NRA’s magazine “American Rifleman” which was glorifying the feeling of a just fired gun being “warm” while in the shooter’s hands. John Lenon took those words because he thought it was disturbing enough to satirize the critique of America’s obsession with guns. Now this poster takes the irony of this further. By replacing the word “gun” with “club” Dennis shifted the target from gun obsession and culture to the police officers themselves. Especially the violence and brutality towards the students during the SF State Strike.

To tie propaganda into all of this the poster visually shows lots of propaganda The colors of the poster are bold and loud and the words are simple yet effective. The drawing of the policeman is drawn cartoonishly and disturbingly joyful. The red is dominating the background as a whole and that is what really grabs and pulls the reader/viewer into the poster. Now, red can and often does symbolize danger, emergency and even blood. But it also associates with love, the artist was also trying to piece in a bit of the officers emotions as well. This twists the message into seeming that the officer loves seeing the violence he is causing to the students. Another way that this poster ties into emotions is the way that the word “happiness” is outlined in black, it feels like the artist is trying to express that this happiness is trapped, that this isn’t what really happiness feels like, it is the happiness that is screwed into police systems to make officers believe that violence is good, it is the way.

Even though this poster was created over 50 years ago, this directly relates to what is happening today like police brutality, Black Lives Matter, and the lack of justice that people receive in the cases where excessive force is used. Black Lives Matter was formed because of the events that happened in the past like police using harsh violence with little to no punishment for their actions, especially against black communities and other minorities. This poster is special and important because it shows how current it is, it could appear in protests that are happening today. The style of the poster and the horror and humor mix to show and emphasize injustice. The satiricalness, the bright bold background, and the cartoon smile are elements that are translated across generations because the violence still hasn’t stopped. This poster is art, it is like a reminder that the systems that students here resisted 50 years ago still are happening today and until that changes “happiness is a warm club” will continue to stay.

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