---
title: New Year's Challenge
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-new-years-challenge-1943/
description: A ragged, bearded figure marked '43 with a scythe and hourglass says '...If you do it, Sonny, your name will go down in history!' to a baby marked 1944 who
section: Collection
---

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3. New Year's Challenge

[![New Year's Challenge, 1943 US cartoon: A ragged, bearded figure marked '43 with a scythe and hourglass says '...If you do it](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-new-years-challenge-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-new-years-challenge-1943.jpg)

# New Year's Challenge

A ragged, bearded figure marked '43 with a scythe and hourglass says '...If you do it, Sonny, your name will go down in history!' to a baby marked 1944 who sprinkles a salt shaker toward the tail of a dove labelled 'Peace'. The tell is glittering generalities: 'peace' and 'history' as positive symbols in the traditional old-year, new-year frame, with the cartoon arguing the new year could be remembered for bringing peace.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
...IF YOU DO IT,
SONNY, YOUR NAME
WILL GO DOWN
IN HISTORY !
'43
1944
PEACE
```

[← Djawa Baroe cover no. 23, "Tari meroentoehkan Amerika dan Inggeris" (A dance to bring down America and England), 1 December 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/djawa-baroe-dance-bring-down-america-uk-cover-1943/) ['90% of the world's rubber is in Japanese hands: Save rubber' (Australian Army poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/90-percent-of-rubber-in-japanese-hands-australia-1944/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [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)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)