---
title: 'Stop loose talk to strangers: enemy ears are alert'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stop-loose-talk-to-strangers-seagram-1941/
description: 'Distiller-sponsored security poster: a large white hand is held up like a stop signal against a blue brush-shape.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Stop loose talk to strangers: enemy ears are alert

[![Stop loose talk to strangers: enemy ears are alert, 1941 US poster: Distiller-sponsored security poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stop-loose-talk-to-strangers-seagram-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stop-loose-talk-to-strangers-seagram-1941.jpg)

# Stop loose talk to strangers: enemy ears are alert

Distiller-sponsored security poster: a large white hand is held up like a stop signal against a blue brush-shape, under a red 'STOP' and the words 'LOOSE TALK to STRANGERS' and 'enemy ears are alert' on black. The hand is the command and the claim that enemy ears are listening is the fear-appeal.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
STOP
LOOSE TALK
to STRANGERS
enemy ears
are alert
THIS POSTER IS PUBLISHED BY THE HOUSE OF SEAGRAM AS PART
OF ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL VICTORY EFFORT
[signature:] ESSARGEE
[imprint:] SEAGRAM-DISTILLERS CORP., N.Y.C.
```

[← Stop Breakage: Conserve and you serve Uncle Sam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stop-breakage-crash-american-hotel-association-1941/) [Stop talking, look what happens, listen, its safer! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stop-talking-look-what-happens-listen-g2-vi-army-corps-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [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.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)