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
- Date
- September 30, 1956
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Elections and party politics, Economy and finance
- Event
- 1956 US Election
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, NAID 5743232 (NAID 5743232).
Text on the object
4 DAY WEEK 3 T-V's 2 CARS DICK ESTES ADLAI PROMISES CRACKS AT G.O.P. JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR
