---
title: 'Venereal Diseases: Confidential Treatment Can Be Obtained Free at the Following Centres - Delay is Dangerous'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-venereal-diseases-confidential-treatment-1939/
description: A large 'VD' monogram over an olive ground announces that confidential treatment is free at listed centres; a blank panel was left for local clinic
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Venereal Diseases: Confidential Treatment Can Be Obtained Free

[![Venereal Diseases: Confidential Treatment Can Be Obtained Free at the Following Centres - Delay is Dangerous, 1939 UK poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-venereal-diseases-confidential-treatment-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-venereal-diseases-confidential-treatment-1939.jpg)

# Venereal Diseases: Confidential Treatment Can Be Obtained Free at the Following Centres - Delay is Dangerous

A large 'VD' monogram over an olive ground announces that confidential treatment is free at listed centres; a blank panel was left for local clinic addresses, and a red arrow points at the yellow slogan 'Delay is Dangerous'. The slogan is the fear-appeal tell: it attaches an unstated danger to waiting, while the practical offer (free, confidential, local) carries the main message.

## 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

```
VD
Venereal Diseases
Confidential Treatment
CAN BE OBTAINED FREE AT THE FOLLOWING CENTRES

Delay is Dangerous

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND ADVICE ABOUT VENEREAL
DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT CAN BE OBTAINED FREE FROM
THE LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT OR FROM THE MEDICAL ADVISER,
CENTRAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH EDUCATION, TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQ., LONDON, W.C.1

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND THE CENTRAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH EDUCATION
PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY LOWE & BRYDONE PRINTERS LTD., LONDON, N.W.10. 51-3154
```

[← Use less WATER! Less water - more shells](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-use-less-water-less-water-more-shells-1939/) [Venereal Diseases - Delay is Dangerous! \[2\] →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-venereal-diseases-delay-is-dangerous-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)
