---
title: Diseases of youth
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/diseases-of-youth-1941/
description: 'Health-education poster: eight photographs (dancing, boxing, basketball, a factory floor, a crowd, harvest work) radiate lines to a circle stating that 60%'
section: Collection
---

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3. Diseases of youth

[![Diseases of youth, 1941 US poster: Health-education poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/diseases-of-youth-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/diseases-of-youth-1941.jpg)

# Diseases of youth

Health-education poster: eight photographs (dancing, boxing, basketball, a factory floor, a crowd, harvest work) radiate lines to a circle stating that 60% of new syphilis infections occur at ages 16 to 30. Below it: 90,000 of the first two million selectees tested had syphilis. The technique is statistics set among images of ordinary youth activity; the tell is that no source for the figures is printed.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
DISEASES OF YOUTH
Of all new syphilis
infections, 60% occur
in young people between
16 and 30 years of age
60%
90,000 OF THE FIRST TWO MILLION
SELECTEES TESTED HAD SYPHILIS
AMERICAN SOCIAL HYGIENE ASSOCIATION
1790 BROADWAY, N. Y. CITY, N. Y.   POSTER NO. 5
```

[← Čuvaj se partizana! Čuvaj se tifusa! (Beware of the Partisan! Beware of Typhus!), Independent State of Croatia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuvaj-se-partizana-tifus-ndh-1941/) [Dish it out with the Navy →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dish-it-out-with-the-navy-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [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)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.