Sucker! If you pay over ceiling prices
Price-control poster in orange and brown: a steak on a cutting board is slid across by a hand marked BLACK MARKET while a second hand holds a five-dollar bill, under the headline SUCKER! IF YOU PAY OVER CEILING PRICES. The insult is aimed at the buyer, and the stencilled black-market label ties the purchase to an illegal sale.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1946
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- United States Office of Price Administration (artist signed Bausili)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- 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)
United States Office of Price Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1828 (NAID 515507).
Text on the object
SUCKER ! BLACK MARKET IF YOU PAY OVER CEILING PRICES [signature: Bausili] [imprint:] UNITED STATES OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION - WASHINGTON 25, D. C. - INF-P2446 (3-46) [imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1946-O-[illegible]
