Tobacco is poison. Quit smoking! 1957

This powerful anti-smoking propaganda poster was created in 1957 by Soviet artist N. Ignatiev as part of a public health campaign in the USSR. The poster uses stark imagery and bold typography to communicate its urgent message: tobacco is deadly. At the top, it reads “Табак – Яд” (“Tobacco is Poison”), with a visual comparison showing that nicotine extracted from just 5 cigarettes can kill a horse, supported by illustrations of a cigarette and a dead horse. The center of the poster dramatically depicts a burning cigarette turning into the body of a collapsed horse – a vivid metaphor for tobacco’s lethality. In bold yellow and orange letters, the poster commands: Quit Smoking!