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
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- American Social Hygiene Association
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- NGO
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, 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)
American Social Hygiene Association. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-639 (NAID 514117).
Text on the object
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
