Press and Advertising Department (DIP)

O Press and Advertising Department (DIP) was an organ created by the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1939. He was responsible for spreading the regime's ideology through political propaganda and also for carrying out censorship. It invested heavily in radio and existed until the year 1945.

Accessalso: The revolt that manifested São Paulo's dissatisfaction against Getulio Vargas

What was the DIP?

The DIP was an existing body during the dictatorship of the new state and it was called the Press and Propaganda Department. It appeared in 1939, being created through dODecrete-Lhey no.º 1.915, issued on the day December 27, 1939. He was not the first department responsible for propaganda under the Vargas government.

The DIP was responsible for the propaganda and censorship of the Estado Novo, the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship.[1]

throughout the It was Vargas, the press organs that existed before the DIP were:

• Official Advertising Department, which existed between 1931 and 1934;

• Department of Propaganda and Cultural Diffusion (DPDC), between 1934 and 1938;

• National Department of Propaganda (DIP), which existed in 1938 and 1939. DIP replaced the latter.

The DIP was responsible for carrying out all actions that were promoteTheideology of the Estado Novo dictatorship. The main aim of this body was to propagate this ideology by the popular classes in Brazil and its two basic functions were perform theofficial government propaganda and promote the censorship of information.

The DIP had different sections, with different scopes of action and encompassing different areas. In all, the sections of the DIP were as follows:

• Advertising;

• Broadcasting;

• Cinema and Theatre;

• Tourism;

• Press;

• Auxiliary Services (include the areas of communications, accounting, material treasury, film library, disco and library).

THE DIP's headquarters were in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil at the time. However, the control of the DIP spread to other states in Brazil through the State Press and Propaganda Departments, the DEIPs. The existence of these branches guaranteed the DIP the possibility of thoroughly controlling everything that happened in Brazil.

the big two areas of activity of the DIP were radio andpresswriting, although he had a strong presence in the artistic field, such as cinema, theater and literature. The DIP engaged intellectuals in defense of the Estado Novo and allowed Getulio Vargas had extensive control over the opinions circulating in the country.

DIP also encouraged the Getúlio Vargas' cult of personality, through advertisements exalting the president and making the placement of portraits of Vargas mandatory in public offices. Getúlio Vargas' face became known in these spaces, although there are historians who point out that Vargas did not directly approve of this action by the DIP.

Accessalso: Populism — the characteristics of Brazilian politics between 1930 and 1964

What were the main objectives of the DIP?

The DIP's objectives are clear and can be found in the decree-law that determined its creation. Generally speaking, we saw that the DIP's mission was to carry out the political propaganda of the Estado Novo and the censorship of information. More specifically, based on the decree-law, we can say that the DIP objectives were:

• coordinate national advertising;

• monitor and organize tourism;

• censoring theater, cinema, sports, literature and the press;

• stimulate the production of national films;

• propose advantages for the elaboration of educational films;

• encourage the holding of events with Brazilian intellectuals;

• prohibit the entry of foreign books in Brazil considered “harmful”;

• promote civic and patriotic events;

• organize the government broadcasting program.

This volume of actions and areas of action has led many historians to define the DIP not as an organ, but rather as a superministry of the Estado Novo.

How did the DIP act?

Cordeiro de Farias, a soldier who was governor of Pernambuco, speaking at the DIP.[1]

One of the focuses of the DIP, as we have already seen, was the radio, object that became the main means of communication in Brazil, much due to the action of the Getúlio Vargas government, which used the medium to spread its propaganda. The ideology of the Estado Novo was transmitted through programs such as Brazil hour, daily news that was mandatory on Brazilian radio stations.

This program allowed the population to have daily contact with what the government was doing and with the voice of Vargas himself, as the historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloísa Starling put it right.|1|. But radio programming lived not only from the news during the Estado Novo, as the DIP insisted on varying the schedule.

With that, the development of music programs was encouraged, in which the samba quickly became popular and became a symbol of Brazil; there were also comedy shows and even talk shows. The target audience for this program was the poorest population, who had radio as one of their few leisure options.

THE transformation of samba into a symbol of Brazil ensured a big boost for the Carnival and for the Samba schools. The parades held by them, for example, began to be sponsored by the government. Furthermore, eventscivic and partiespatriotic were organized on specific dates, such as the September 7th or the May 1st.

DIP too produced documentaries, which were broadcast in movie sessions and which were even exported outside Brazil, as well as printed publications. One of them was The Brazil of today, yesterday and tomorrow, a monthly publication that brought reports on different aspects of life in Brazil and always sought to highlight the figure of Getúlio Vargas.

THE censorship was one of the main areas of activity of the DIP, after all, the Estado Novo was a dictatorship and, as such, it carried out a rigorous control of the information. Censorship could be from a moral and religious point of view, but also political. Films and plays could only be played and staged if they were approved by the censors.

Radio programs were only approved if censorship allowed them, and the creativity of samba dancers was often cut short, because the lyrics were blocked by the censors. THE censorship only began to weaken in Brazil in 1945, when the opposition to the Estado Novo was advanced and widespread in various groups of society.

Mattersrelated: Queremismo: the movement that defended the permanence of Vargas in power

DIP extinction

From 1943, the dictatorship of the Estado Novo began to weaken, and the questioning of society began to weaken Vargas' position. Because of this, the regime's censorship began to be broken and some openings were made in Brazil, in an attempt by Vargas to sustain himself in power, but it didn't work.

He was deposed at the end of 1945, but before that he authorized the extinction of the DIP. Decree-Law No. 7,582, of May 25, 1945, determined the end of the DIP and its replacement by the National Information Department, the DNI, an agency that only existed until 1946. During its existence, the DIP managers were as follows: laurelSources (1939-1942), Rabbit of the Kings (1942-1943) and Amilcar Dutra ofMenezes (1943-1945).

Grades

|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloísa Murgel. Brazil: A Biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 377.

Image credit

[1] FGV/CPDOC

By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/o-dip-estado-novo.htm