---
title: Are You Playing Square?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/are-you-playing-square-opa-1944/
description: A large painted portrait of a helmeted soldier looks out over a small scene of a car at a gasoline pump, under the headline 'Are YOU Playing Square?'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Are You Playing Square?

[![Are You Playing Square?, 1944 US poster: A large painted portrait of a helmeted soldier looks out over a small scene of a car](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/are-you-playing-square-opa-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/are-you-playing-square-opa-1944.jpg)

# Are You Playing Square?

A large painted portrait of a helmeted soldier looks out over a small scene of a car at a gasoline pump, under the headline 'Are YOU Playing Square?'. The soldier's gaze and uniform lend the front-line figure's standing to gasoline-rationing compliance, a transfer, and the question puts the viewer personally on the spot.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
ARE YOU PLAYING SQUARE ?
GAS
[signature:] DEAN CORNWELL FOR O.W.I.
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-600050
[imprint:] OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
[imprint:] Poster 302-843, 7-44
```

[← Are You a Mosquito Breeder?](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/are-you-a-mosquito-breeder-1944/) [Are you wearing the RIGHT safety equipment? →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/are-you-wearing-the-right-safety-equipment-1944/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)