Content note: Cartoon showing Axis leaders' powers as rats (one with a swastika, one with a rising-sun disc) in a pit with skulls, drawn as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Dig 'em out
Black-and-white cartoon: a scowling soldier drives a shovel marked 'WHAT IT TAKES' into the ground above a pit in which three rats, one marked with a swastika and one with a rising-sun disc, lie among skulls and a bundle labelled 'LOOT'. The rat figures stand for the Axis powers; the technique is name-calling by animal imagery, with the sponsor's name attached to the war effort.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Philco Corporation
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- 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)
Philco Corporation. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-637 (NAID 514115).
Text on the object
DIG 'EM OUT WHAT IT TAKES LOOT [signature:] Drawn for Philco by [illegible] [imprint:] Copyright 1942-Philco Corporation
