---
title: Reach your boy overseas by V-mail
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/reach-your-boy-overseas-v-mail-1942/
description: 'Home-front poster promoting V-mail letter forms: a helmeted soldier''s face beside the word ''mail'' drawn as a strip of microfilm.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Reach your boy overseas by V-mail

[![Reach your boy overseas by V-mail, 1942 US poster: Home-front poster promoting V-mail letter forms](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/reach-your-boy-overseas-v-mail-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/reach-your-boy-overseas-v-mail-1942.jpg)

# Reach your boy overseas by V-mail

Home-front poster promoting V-mail letter forms: a helmeted soldier's face beside the word 'mail' drawn as a strip of microfilm, with the claim 'Easy to use, surest, fastest, and most patriotic'. The tell is the stacked superlatives and the link of a postal product to patriotism.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Reach Your Boy
OVERSEAS
by
mail
the letters
that travel on film
EASY TO USE
SUREST—
FASTEST—
and MOST
PATRIOTIC
Your Stationer and Post Office have
V...—MAIL LETTER FORMS
[signature: SCHLAIKJER]
[imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942—O—486595]
```

[← Rationing safeguards your share](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rationing-safeguards-your-share-opa-1942/) [Regular check ups keep him on the job →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/regular-check-ups-keep-him-on-the-job-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)