---
title: 'A blood test for everyone: the only sure check'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-blood-test-for-everyone-usphs-1941/
description: 'Health poster: a glowing cluster of faces of different ages and sexes, one a Black man, one a baby, crossed by a test tube of red blood.'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. A blood test for everyone: the only sure check

**Content note:** Health poster stating a syphilis statistic with a test tube of blood and a cluster of faces. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![A blood test for everyone: the only sure check, 1941 US poster: Health poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/a-blood-test-for-everyone-usphs-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/a-blood-test-for-everyone-usphs-1941.jpg)

# A blood test for everyone: the only sure check

Health poster: a glowing cluster of faces of different ages and sexes, one a Black man, one a baby, crossed by a test tube of red blood, with 'A blood test for EVERYONE, the only sure check' and 'Syphilis strikes 1 in 10 before 50'. The tell is a statistic used as a fear-appeal and a universal 'everyone' that places the viewer among those to be tested.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
A BLOOD TEST FOR
EVERYONE
THE ONLY SURE CHECK
Syphilis STRIKES 1 IN 10 BEFORE 50
[imprint:] UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
[signature:] [illegible]
```

[← A blood test and examination protects your health and family](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-blood-test-and-examination-asha-1941/) [A Christmas Carol →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-christmas-carol-uncle-sam-carolers/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)