---
title: Enemies in hiding!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/enemies-in-hiding-defeat-waste-1942/
description: A text poster dated August 3, 1942, framed by red-white-and-blue stripes and pale war-industry scenes, calling waste and extravagance 'enemies in hiding'
section: Collection
---

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3. Enemies in hiding!

[![Enemies in hiding!, 1942 US poster: A text poster dated August 3, 1942, framed by red-white-and-blue stripes and pale](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/enemies-in-hiding-defeat-waste-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/enemies-in-hiding-defeat-waste-1942.jpg)

# Enemies in hiding!

A text poster dated August 3, 1942, framed by red-white-and-blue stripes and pale war-industry scenes, calling waste and extravagance 'enemies in hiding' that 'lurk' and 'sneak' and promising that saving and salvage will defeat waste. Name-calling by metaphor: household waste is described in the vocabulary of an enemy force.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
AUGUST 3, 1942
ENEMIES IN HIDING!
Sly WASTE Lurks
About Our Jobs!
EXTRAVAGANCE Sneaks
Into Our Homes!
They destroy materials urgently needed
by our Relatives, Friends and Neighbors
serving at the Battle-Front.
They're Slippery Foes
and Hard to Mop-Up!
but SAVING and SALVAGE will
DEFEAT WASTE
RETAIL STORE
BANK
[imprint:] COPYRIGHT 1942 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLICITY, PHILADELPHIA
```

[← General Maximiliano H. Martinez, Presidente Constitucional de El Salvador](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-salvador-general-maximiliano-h-martinez-presidente-1942/) [Enemy Ears Are Listening (OWI Poster No. 5) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/enemy-ears-are-listening-owi-5-1942/)

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- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
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