---
title: Diphtheria is deadly - Immunisation is the safeguard
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-diphtheria-is-deadly-immunisation-safeguard-1939/
description: A large painted portrait of a laughing baby on a red ground sits between the words 'Diphtheria is deadly' and 'Immunisation is the safeguard'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Diphtheria is deadly - Immunisation is the safeguard

[![Diphtheria is deadly - Immunisation is the safeguard, 1939 UK poster: A large painted portrait of a laughing baby on a red](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-diphtheria-is-deadly-immunisation-safeguard-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-diphtheria-is-deadly-immunisation-safeguard-1939.jpg)

# Diphtheria is deadly - Immunisation is the safeguard

A large painted portrait of a laughing baby on a red ground sits between the words 'Diphtheria is deadly' and 'Immunisation is the safeguard'. The headline names the threat and then the remedy (fear appeal), while the smiling infant carries the reward of compliance, a positive emotion attached to the official advice (transfer).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
DIPHTHERIA
is deadly-
IMMUNISATION
is the
safeguard

ASK AT YOUR
LOCAL COUNCIL
OFFICES
OR
WELFARE CENTRE

Issued by the Ministry of Health
and the
Central Council for Health Education

PRINTED FOR H.M.STATIONERY OFFICE BY CHROMOWORKS LTD, LONDON. 51-3856.
```

[← Cut the last three inches of your loaf this way](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-cut-last-three-inches-of-loaf-1939/) [Diphtheria is one of the most deadly children's diseases →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-diphtheria-most-deadly-childrens-diseases-1939/)

## 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)