---
title: 'Sweet Talk Kills (Thai poster, Bangkok Poster #6)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bangkok-sweet-talk-kills-thai-1952/
description: A Thai-language cartoon poster. A large moustached figure with a hammer in one hand and a sickle in the other, followed by a smaller copy, strides toward…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Caricature cartoon of a moustached Stalin-like figure with hammer and sickle, kept whole. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Sweet Talk Kills (Thai poster, Bangkok Poster #6)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bangkok-sweet-talk-kills-thai-1952.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bangkok-sweet-talk-kills-thai-1952.jpg)

# Sweet Talk Kills (Thai poster, Bangkok Poster #6)

A Thai-language cartoon poster. A large moustached figure with a hammer in one hand and a sickle in the other, followed by a smaller copy, strides toward silhouettes of villagers carrying loads while speech lines promise 'no need to work' and 'live free, eat free'. The headline answers that honeyed words kill. The label is the caricature itself: the promise is shown as bait and the danger is stated in the closing proverb.

## Text on the object

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

```
ไม่ต้องทำงาน
ก็มีกิน

อยู่ฟรี
กินฟรี

หวานลมลิ้นย่อมกินตาย
กินง่ายก็ตายก่อน
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
No need to work, you'll still have food.

Live free, eat free.

Sweet wind of the tongue [honeyed words] will eat you dead.
Eat easy, die first.
```

The first four lines are printed in white on the dark panel at upper right; the last two lines are the black headline. FRAME translation (machine, not fluent-reader verified); 'หวานลมลิ้น' is rendered literally.

[← 지게나 마차로 B-29와 젯트기에 대항이 되겠는가! (Can A-Frames and Carts Stand Against B-29s and Jets?), leaflet 8274](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-command-leaflet-8274-cart-vs-b29-1952/) [Allies for World Peace →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/allies-for-world-peace-1952/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [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)
