---
title: Exterminate the Fly!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exterminate-the-fly-1941/
description: 'Public-health sheet: a large fly with a red arrow runs from a barn, garbage can, privy and pig trough toward a sick child, a set dinner table.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Exterminate the Fly!

[![Exterminate the Fly!, 1941 US poster: Public-health sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/exterminate-the-fly-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/exterminate-the-fly-1941.jpg)

# Exterminate the Fly!

Public-health sheet: a large fly with a red arrow runs from a barn, garbage can, privy and pig trough toward a sick child, a set dinner table, a bed and a joint of meat, over a block of text naming typhoid fever, dysentery and diarrhea. The tell is the fear-appeal of the disease route; the text lists only fly-control measures.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
EXTERMINATE THE FLY!
Many people are affected every year by diseases transmitted by flies—among these are
Typhoid Fever—Dysentery—Diarrhea
Flies breed and live in filth. In feeding they move from this filth to the kitchen or dining table and transmit disease through germs carried on their hairy bodies and legs.
Swatting, trapping, and poisoning flies will help, but to eliminate these pests breeding must be prevented.
Keep stables clean; remove manure at least once a week. Put garbage in receptacles with close-fitting covers; empty and wash out frequently. Lacking sewers, build only flyproof sanitary privies. Screen adequately all homes, markets, bakeries, and other food establishments.
Every year begin the campaign against flies before the first one is seen—in March or April. A pair of flies born in April may give origin to millions by August. Keep the first from breeding.
NO FILTH : NO FLIES : LESS DISEASE
UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
[imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16—11948]
```

[← Executive Order 8802: Fair employment practice in defense industries](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/executive-order-8802-fair-employment-1941/) [Families can grow the produce for freedom →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/families-can-grow-the-produce-for-freedom-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)