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
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of Price Administration (artist Dean Cornwell, for OWI)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of Price Administration (artist Dean Cornwell, for OWI). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-180 (NAID 513626).
Text on the object
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
