---
title: Venereal Diseases - Tomorrow's Citizen
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-venereal-diseases-tomorrows-citizen-mount-1939/
description: A photograph of a small boy stands at the point of a light cone that throws a large dark adult shadow behind him, under the words 'Tomorrow's Citizen'.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Venereal Diseases - Tomorrow's Citizen

[![Venereal Diseases - Tomorrow's Citizen, 1939 UK poster: A photograph of a small boy stands at the point of a light cone that](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-venereal-diseases-tomorrows-citizen-mount-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-venereal-diseases-tomorrows-citizen-mount-1939.jpg)

# Venereal Diseases - Tomorrow's Citizen

A photograph of a small boy stands at the point of a light cone that throws a large dark adult shadow behind him, under the words 'Tomorrow's Citizen'. The text says he 'must not be handicapped by Venereal Disease passed on by Parents'; the looming shadow and the child at risk are the fear-appeal, paired with an offer of free confidential treatment.

## 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

```
Venereal Diseases
VD
TOMORROW'S CITIZEN

He must not be handicapped by
Venereal Disease passed on by
Parents. Make sure you're fit to be
the Parents of tomorrow's citizens

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

Treatment is free and confidential

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND THE CENTRAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH EDUCATION
PRINTED IN ENGLAND by Henry Hildesley Ltd. London. 51/ 3379
```

[← Venereal Diseases - Quack "Cures" are Useless](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-venereal-diseases-quack-cures-are-useless-1939/) [Volunteer for Flying Duties →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-volunteer-for-flying-duties-foss-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)