---
title: Speaking of "Bread and Circuses"
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-speaking-of-bread-and-circuses-1956/
description: In a circus ring, a figure labelled 'Dick' in a tailcoat rides an elephant, waving a top hat and holding balloons marked '4 Day Week'.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Speaking of "Bread and Circuses"

[![Speaking of "Bread and Circuses", 1956 US cartoon: In a circus ring, a figure labelled 'Dick' in a tailcoat rides](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-speaking-of-bread-and-circuses-1956.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-speaking-of-bread-and-circuses-1956.jpg)

# Speaking of "Bread and Circuses"

In a circus ring, a figure labelled 'Dick' in a tailcoat rides an elephant, waving a top hat and holding balloons marked '4 Day Week', '3 T-V's' and '2 Cars'; beside him a chariot labelled 'Promises' is driven by a smiling man labelled 'Adlai' with a man in a coonskin cap labelled 'Estes' brandishing a sword, while a whip lettered 'Cracks at G.O.P.' trails behind. The cartoon argues that both tickets are competing in promises of material benefit, and the tell is the glittering-generality style of the pledges themselves; the same technique definition is applied to both sides.

## 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

```
4 DAY WEEK
3 T-V's
2 CARS
DICK
ESTES
ADLAI
PROMISES
CRACKS AT G.O.P.
JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
```

[← Iran News poster 52i, scout jamboree, US guns (Farsi, distributed in Tehran)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-news-poster-52i-scout-jamboree-us-guns-farsi-1956/) [Lonesome Road →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lonesome-road-berryman-1956/)

## 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)