Cancer: early diagnosis would save 50,000 lives every year
Public-health poster: a tree trunk made from a photograph of a dense crowd of hats carries a swollen growth low on the trunk, with CANCER in large red letters across it. The figure of 50,000 lives a year is stated as fact and the crowd-as-tree image makes the loss collective; the technique is fear-appeal built on a statistic.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- United States Public Health Service (artist: Fellnagel)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- Health
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
United States Public Health Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-548 (NAID 514027).
Text on the object
CANCER early diagnosis would save 50,000 lives every year [signature:] fellnagel [imprint:] UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
