---
title: The Year's Best Idea!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-the-years-best-idea-1934/
description: A harried man in shirtsleeves and a drawing-board visor holds up a large sign reading 'Merry Christmas to all of you!!' with holly sprigs.
section: Collection
---

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3. The Year's Best Idea!

[![The Year's Best Idea!, 1934 US cartoon: A harried man in shirtsleeves and a drawing-board visor holds up a large sign reading](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-the-years-best-idea-1934.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-the-years-best-idea-1934.jpg)

# The Year's Best Idea!

A harried man in shirtsleeves and a drawing-board visor holds up a large sign reading 'Merry Christmas to all of you!!' with holly sprigs, while dozens of paper slips bearing names of local sports figures, clubs and schools lie in a heap on the floor. The technique tell is glittering generalities, though a weak fit: a single seasonal greeting stands in for many individual ones, and the technique is present only in the generalised goodwill of the message.

## 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

```
Merry Christmas TO ALL OF YOU !!
I HAD T'GIVE UP FOLKS---- THERE WERE TOO MANY-- BUT THIS IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO PUT OVER!
GRIFF; JACK HAGERTY & GEORGETOWN; ST. ALBANS; MIKE MARTIN; BILL WOOD; MANOR CLUB; ST. JOHNS; WASHINGTON GOLF & C.C.; BUCKY; JOE CRONIN; GOLDIE AHEARN; DUTCH BERGMAN & C.U.; BILLIE BUTLER; GEORGE ISEMANN; BOXING COMMISSION; JIM PIXLEE & G.W.U; LORRAINE GULLI; HOWARD LIVINGSTON; COLUMBIA C.C.; ED EYNON; MARTY GALLAGHER; JOE TURNER; NATIE BROWN; DIST. A.A.U.; JACK FABER & MARYLAND U.; CHEVY CHASE CLUB; CHARLEY REYNOLDS; BEAVER DAM C.C.; KENWOOD CLUB; HARRY GROVES; JACK WHALEN; WALTER YOUNG & AMERICAN U.; JIMMY LAKE; GALLAUDET; HIGH SCHOOLS; GONZAGA; PATSY DONOVAN; POTOMAC BOAT CLUB; CHRIS HEURICH JR.; DENNY HUGHES; CONGRESSIONAL C.C.; HOWARD CAMPBELL; FRANKIE MANN; INDIAN SPRINGS C.C.
JIM BERRYMAN
```

[← The tricolour 'SI' ballot of the plebiscite of 25 March 1934: 'Approvate voi la lista dei deputati designati dal Gran Consiglio?'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/scheda-plebiscito-si-1934/) [Gemeinschaftsempfang der Rede des Führers (communal listening to the Führer's speech): shop notice →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gemeinschaftsempfang-communal-listening-1935/)

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- [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)
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