Smash the prostitution racket
Public-health poster on yellow: a large blue clenched fist under the words 'Smash the prostitution racket' and 'Prostitution spreads venereal disease'. The label 'racket' casts the trade as a criminal enterprise (name-calling), and disease is the stated threat (fear-appeal).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- American Social Hygiene Association (artist Ben Klein)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- NGO
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Health, Home front
- 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)
American Social Hygiene Association. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1759 (NAID 515431).
Text on the object
SMASH THE PROSTITUTION RACKET Prostitution spreads venereal disease [signature:] Ben Klein [imprint:] AMERICAN SOCIAL HYGIENE ASSOCIATION 1790 BROADWAY, N. Y. CITY, N. Y. POSTER NO. 5
