---
title: An enemy ear may be near - Stop all loose talk to strangers!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/an-enemy-ear-may-be-near-seagram-1942/
description: A very large black brush-drawn ear fills the upper sheet, above the red headline 'an enemy ear may be near' and the blue instruction to stop all loose talk
section: Collection
---

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3. An enemy ear may be near - Stop all loose talk to strangers!

[![An enemy ear may be near - Stop all loose talk to strangers!, 1942 US poster: A very large black brush-drawn ear fills](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/an-enemy-ear-may-be-near-seagram-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/an-enemy-ear-may-be-near-seagram-1942.jpg)

# An enemy ear may be near - Stop all loose talk to strangers!

A very large black brush-drawn ear fills the upper sheet, above the red headline 'an enemy ear may be near' and the blue instruction to stop all loose talk to strangers. The oversized ear stands for unseen listeners, a fear-appeal for civilians about careless speech. A line at the foot says the poster is published by the House of Seagram as part of its contribution to the national victory effort.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
an enemy ear
may be near-
Stop all loose talk to
STRANGERS !
THIS POSTER IS PUBLISHED BY THE HOUSE OF SEAGRAM AS PART
OF ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL VICTORY EFFORT
SEAGRAM-DISTILLERS CORP., N.Y.C.
[signature: Essargee]
```

[← America's Alertmen! Meet Benny the Bungler](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/americas-alertmen-meet-benny-1942/) [Announcing! New and higher Navy pay →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/announcing-new-and-higher-navy-pay-1942/)

## 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)