---
title: Before, never give a germ a break!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/before-never-give-a-germ-a-break-1944/
description: 'Hygiene poster of two photographs divided by a banner reading BEFORE: soapy hands being scrubbed above, and a mess-kit meal with a canteen cup.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Before, never give a germ a break!

[![Before, never give a germ a break!, 1944 US poster: Hygiene poster of two photographs divided by a banner reading BEFORE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/before-never-give-a-germ-a-break-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/before-never-give-a-germ-a-break-1944.jpg)

# Before, never give a germ a break!

Hygiene poster of two photographs divided by a banner reading BEFORE: soapy hands being scrubbed above, and a mess-kit meal with a canteen cup, bread and butter below, with the slogan 'Never give a germ a break!'. It is the companion to the AFTER sheet. The technique is a plain health fear-appeal that implies germs reach food from unwashed hands.

## 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

```
BEFORE
NEVER GIVE A GERM A BREAK!
Distribution: Continental: In accordance with Part II, ASF Cir. No. 313, 1944 and Section I, ASF Cir. No. 181, 1944. Overseas: T of Opns (10); Depts (10); SvC (10); Base Comds (10); Island Comds (10); Def Comds (10); Sectors (10); Base Sectors (10); Armies (1); Corps (1); D (1); B (1); R (1); Sep Bn (1).
Approved War Department Graphic Training Aid 8-9
WAR DEPARTMENT · 12 OCTOBER 1944
Reproduction without permission prohibited
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE · 1944 · O-619221
```

[← ...because somebody talked!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/because-somebody-talked-1944/) [Beware... Drink only approved water →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/beware-drink-only-approved-water-1944/)

## 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)