The concept of war is scary – we all know for a fact that the greatest aftermath of war is death. What about the destruction and disruption to human life?

According to John and Yoko, the choice to go to war or live in peace is personal. People have the power to decide that they do not want to bear with the aftermath of war simply by choosing to stay away.

The idea of a peaceful worldwide anti-war campaign was triggered by unrest in Biafra, Vietnam and other regions of the world. The duo went ahead to print peace ads and leaflets from their own pockets in the hope that people would choose peace over war.

By the time the Vietnam War caught the attention of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, American fatalities were recorded as 40,000. It would be another five years after the inception of the peace campaign that the war would finally come to an end. To Yoko and Lennon, it was important to get the peace message out there.

Nearly every space that would be used for advertisement was utilized for purposes of the campaign. It was a message that people could not ignore and the more they got familiar to seeing it, the deeper the message sunk.

Looking at the poster for the first time, one cannot help but notice the perfect design; it seems like it has been up for years. The choice for black and white, bold font, the punctuations and the writing effect of shrinking the wordings cause the message to appear serious. Part of the reason why their artwork stood out is because of the input of John Kosh.

A photographer and art director, Kosh has been previewing the concept that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were preparing to present to the world. In May of 1969, he had been the photographer in Montreal and Amsterdam when the bed-ins campaigns were being made. Having worked on other projects such as album covers for the Beatles and equally iconic music groups, he understood what the peace message needed to look like.

The “WAR IS OVER!” announcement created an initial impression of a statement describing the state of war at the time. To those who were against the war, this message brought temporary relief because of what it meant; their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers would be coming home. Underneath the large print are words in smaller font that read:

IF YOU WANT IT.

This part opens the mind to the reality of war; every individual has a responsibility to bring an end to war.

Wishing for hope and then realizing that we have in our hands the power to live in peace is the gift that John and Yoko have shared through their poster art. Each one of the prints on the billboards, newspapers, brochures and posters express their love and goodwill for a happy Christmas season for everyone.

" Before they settled on the poster as the most suitable medium for spreading the peace message, John and Yoko had initially gotten into an agreement with a New York City-based shop owner who agreed to print a customized headline for a newspaper.

The problem is that they would need to contact every newspaper publication in the cities they had selected. This was quite a challenge and they felt it could take ages before they could achieve it. The easier alternative would be to use posters instead.

Working with posters required identification of the locations in which the peace message would go up. The slogan would then be prepared, making sure to have it completed in the various locations simultaneously; this was enabled by the fact that they used minimal effects on the posters.

Those who saw the posters that John Lennon and Yoko Ono had put up on the morning of December 15, 1969, must have thought that it was a passing phase – a season for this couple to express themselves in a unique form of art. The truth is that they had just begun what would be an unstoppable and infinite campaign for peace around the world.

On the very same day that the first set of posters went up for the public to see, John and his wife Yoko flew over to Toronto to carry on their campaign. By then, the message of peace was in 12 major cities of the world (Los Angeles, New York, Rome, Toronto, Amsterdam, Athens, Paris, Helsinki, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London). 

" During war, it does not matter who is winning; either side must suffer a loss of some kind. The Vietnam War continued even after John and Yoko had put up messages rallying the entire world to peace. This does not mean that the campaign did not serve its purpose; as a matter of fact, the campaign brought comfort and hope. People look up at a time of conflict in the hope that they will find a reason to hang on to the dreams of a better future.

"By presenting it (peace), like something which people could touch and interact with, their sole mission was to get everybody’s attention drawn to the fact that war and peace are their choice. Lennon explains that they chose the Christmas theme deliberately so that the world could find at least one excuse to choose peace over this season. This goes on to be reflected in the song "Happy X-MAS (WAR IS OVER.)"      

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" Through the WAR IS OVER (If You Want It) campaign, Lennon spoke directly to the people to tell them that they have the power to choose the kind of life they want. The Peace website that Yoko launched in 2015 is supposed to spread this message further and wider. He urges people to start their own campaigns for peace wherever they may be so long as they make small impacts at a time. To him, big moves scare away people and often lead to confrontations.

Special credits to the below article for providing information on the conception of this campaign. 

Schulze, Martin. “War Is over – John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Massive Poster Campaign.” Public Delivery – Art Non-Profit, Public Delivery, 20 Sept. 2024, publicdelivery.org/war-is-over/.