Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Give 'em hell! Use your spray on malaria mosquitoes, 1944 US poster: A cartoon mosquito with eyelashes and a red mouth

Give 'em hell! Use your spray on malaria mosquitoes

A cartoon mosquito with eyelashes and a red mouth tumbles backward in a cloud of spray from a hand-held can. The headline 'give 'em Hell!' and the line 'Fight the peril behind the lines' put insect control in battle terms (transfer), and the mosquito is shown as a comic enemy.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1944
Period
Second World War
Made by
U.S. government (Government Printing Office imprint)
Region
North America
Country
United States
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
Leader
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Warn or inform
Themes
Health, War and the military
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)
U.S. government (Government Printing Office imprint). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-874 (NAID 514379).

Text on the object

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

give 'em Hell!
USE YOUR SPRAY
ON MALARIA MOSQUITOES
FIGHT THE PERIL BEHIND THE LINES
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—574718]

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