---
title: Don't be afraid to ask - Who is that guy?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-be-afraid-to-ask-who-is-that-guy-1941/
description: Cartoon factory worker cups his hand and shouts 'Who is that guy?' at a man peering round a No Admittance sign.
section: Collection
---

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3. Don't be afraid to ask - Who is that guy?

[![Don't be afraid to ask - Who is that guy?, 1941 US poster: Cartoon factory worker cups his hand and shouts 'Who is that guy?'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-be-afraid-to-ask-who-is-that-guy-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-be-afraid-to-ask-who-is-that-guy-1941.jpg)

# Don't be afraid to ask - Who is that guy?

Cartoon factory worker cups his hand and shouts 'Who is that guy?' at a man peering round a No Admittance sign. The text says politeness has ceased to be a virtue, that spies do not wear uniforms, and calls the worker a production soldier on America's first line of defense. Fear-appeal of the hidden spy plus transfer of military duty to the shop floor.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK-
WHO IS THAT GUY?
NO ADMITTANCE
There is a Time when Politeness Ceases to be a Virtue
NOW IS THAT TIME . . . You are a Sentry in
America's First Line of Defense. The Production
Line . . . Don't hesitate to challenge Strangers . . .
Spies don't wear uniforms. Demand Credentials . . .
IT'S YOUR SAFETY that's at stake.
You are a PRODUCTION SOLDIER...
America's First Line of Defense is HERE
[signature:] HUNGERFORD
[imprint:] Copyright 1941, Cyrus C. Hungerford, Pittsburgh, Pa.
```

[← Do your part! Build our battle line with salvage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/do-your-part-build-our-battle-line-with-salvage-los-angeles-1941/) [Don't be an amateur G-man! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-be-an-amateur-g-man-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)