EKOM

Salvador Dalí’s 1942 poster created for the U.S. Army’s campaign against venereal diseases. In 1942, the U.S. Army recruited Salvador Dalí to design a powerful public health poster warning soldiers about the risks of venereal diseases. Instead of using a traditional slogan-based approach, Dalí relied on his surrealist style and the optical illusion technique known as the paranoiac-critical method to deliver the message. At first glance, the artwork appears to depict two women wearing stockings and garter belts standing beneath a glowing structure. However, when viewed from a distance, the image reveals a hidden human skull. The women’s heads become the skull’s eye sockets, while their legs create the appearance of teeth, forming a disturbing visual connection between sexual temptation, illness, and mortality. By using a striking psychological image designed to engage the subconscious, the Army aimed to make its warning more memorable to soldiers than conventional wartime health campaigns.