Content note: Enemy depicted as a rat marked with a swastika. This object is shown as it was published. Why
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
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- House of Seagram (Seagram-Distillers Corp., New York); artist Ess-Ar-Gee
- 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
- Security and surveillance, 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)
House of Seagram. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1799 (NAID 515477).
Text on the object
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.]
