Lao poster No. 3, opium smokers (Lao poster distributed in Vientiane)
Three men and a woman lie on a floor, two men drawing on long pipes over a covered lamp, a fourth man sprawled with a pipe in his hand, under a Lao headline. The headline says that if we gladly take up an evil habit our lives grow shorter each day. The tell is fear-appeal: the poster threatens a shortened life if the viewer takes up the pictured habit.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- June 22, 1959
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Eisenhower Administration
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- Health
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Posters in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, June 22, 1959. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 6949061, 306-PPB-160c).
Text on the object
ຖ້າເຮົາຍອມຊົມຊື່ນນຳຂອງຊົ່ວຮ້າຍ ຊີວິດຂອງເຮົານັບມື້ຈະສັ້ນ
If we gladly give ourselves to evil things, our lives will grow shorter day by day. (approximate)
Read by eye from a stylised Lao hand; word forms are uncertain. No imprint is printed.
