# Don't Betray Your Heroes: Don't Sell Your Vote! (1953)

An English-language poster distributed in the Philippines, catalog date 6 August 1953, in the U.S. Information Agency series for Asia. A helmeted infantryman, seven portrait heads and the Philippine flag surround a locked box "for valid ballots," above the line "Don't sell your vote!" No sponsor is printed (NAID 5729938).

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      Don't Betray Your Heroes: Don't Sell Your Vote! (poster distributed in the Philippines)

      Don't Betray Your Heroes: Don't Sell Your Vote! (1953)
      A 1953 USIA-series poster for the Philippines rings a locked ballot box with a soldier, seven portraits, the flag: "Don't sell your vote!" No sponsor

## Techniques named on the archive record

TransferFear appeal
      DateAugust 6, 1953Made byU.S. Information Agency, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series (no sponsor printed on the sheet)MediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeEisenhower AdministrationNARANAID 1767935; NAID 5729938SourceUnidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosureSourceU.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, series 'Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia' (NAID 1767935), via Wikimedia Commons , retrieved October 2, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work, USIA; Commons tag PD-USGov, NARA cooperation template) U.S. Information Agency / Department of State; National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information Agency (RG 306), NAID 5729938.
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  An English-language poster distributed in the Philippines, catalog date 6 August 1953, in the U.S. Information Agency series for Asia. A helmeted infantryman, seven portrait heads and the Philippine flag surround a locked box "for valid ballots," above the line "Don't sell your vote!" No sponsor is printed (NAID 5729938).

## What it shows

Two colours, one instruction. On the archive's description, a helmeted infantryman with a rifle, seven portrait heads and the Philippine flag are grouped around a locked ballot box, and a large V leads down into the slogan. The record lists every word on it, and there are not many.

DON'T BETRAY YOUR HEROES--THE MEN

WHO FOUGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE

[ballot box:] BOX

for

VALID BALLOTS

DON'T SELL YOUR VOTE!

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the 1280 px rendering; the record notes that the poster has no other text. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 5729938, Record Group 306.

## Who made it

FRAME credits the U.S. Information Agency and its series of posters distributed in Asia, adding the note "no sponsor printed on the sheet." The archive classes the source as unidentified. A voter in the Philippines who read this poster had no way to know from the paper that a foreign government's information service stood behind it. Neither the artist nor the seven faces in the portraits are identified, and no print run is given.

## The argument

FRAME tags it transfer and fear appeal. The portraits and the flag lend their weight to a single instruction, and the stake for ignoring it is betrayal of the men who fought. That is a strong appeal to make about a private act.

The instruction itself is sound. A bought vote is a corrupted vote, and a republic that lets ballots be sold soon has no real elections. Nothing on the sheet tells the reader whom to vote for, which is to its credit. What deserves a plain note is the missing name. An election message from a foreign government is a different thing from the same message signed by a local civic group, and a reader is entitled to know which one is speaking.

Another archive record with the same catalog date carries the shorter title Don't Sell Your Vote! On this site, compare the 1953 NAMFREL registration notice, which does carry a signature, and the Credo sheet from the same series. The U.S. Information Agency hub sets these beside the agency's other work abroad.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Don't Betray Your Heroes: Don't Sell Your Vote! (poster distributed in the Philippines), 6 August 1953. U.S. Information Agency, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series (no sponsor printed on the sheet).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Information Agency (RG 306), series "Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia" (NAID 1767935), item NAID 5729938, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work, USIA).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/dont-sell-your-vote-philippines-1953/