---
title: Starve him with silence
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/starve-him-with-silence-seagram-1941/
description: 'Color poster: a bespectacled rat with a swastika on its flank gnaws a hole in a sack marked ''War Secrets'', under the headline ''Starve him with Silence''.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Starve him with silence

**Content note:** Enemy depicted as a rat marked with a swastika. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Starve him with silence, 1941 US poster: Color poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/starve-him-with-silence-seagram-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/starve-him-with-silence-seagram-1941.jpg)

# Starve him with silence

Color poster: a bespectacled rat with a swastika on its flank gnaws a hole in a sack marked 'War Secrets', under the headline 'Starve him with Silence'. The technique is name-calling by animal imagery, with the enemy cast as a vermin that feeds on careless talk; the fear-appeal is implied rather than stated.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Starve him with
Silence
WAR
Secrets
[signature: ESS-AR-GEE]
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.]
```

[← Stamp 'em out! Beat your promise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stamp-em-out-beat-your-promise-1941/) [Starve the Squander Bug. Buy more war bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/starve-the-squander-bug-buy-more-war-bonds-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)