Content note: Animal-bodied caricatures of Axis leaders, including a yellow-skinned, buck-toothed caricature of a Japanese figure, shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Look Who's Listening
Sponsor-issued security poster: three animal-bodied caricatures stacked on one another, each with a glowing red ear cupped toward the viewer, beside the headline 'Look Who's Listening'. The figures are identified by uniform and features, not by name. Animal depiction is name-calling; the listening ears imply the enemy overhears civilian talk, a fear-appeal.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- House of Seagram (Seagram-Distillers Corp.), artist Essargee
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance
- 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)
House of Seagram (Seagram-Distillers Corp.). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1301 (NAID 514907).
Text on the object
LOOK WHO'S Listening [signature:] ESSARGEE [imprint:] THIS POSTER IS PUBLISHED BY THE HOUSE OF SEAGRAM AS PART OF ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL VICTORY EFFORT [imprint:] SEAGRAM - DISTILLERS CORP., N.Y.C.
