In the final years of Soviet Union, the government tried curbing drinking with public service announcements that visualized alcohol as death. A new exhibition called Just Say Nyet collects the best of them from the late 1980s that looks a little different than what you might first think of when it comes to Soviet propaganda.

Curated by B.A. Van Sise, the exhibition runs from November 12 to April 11, 2027 at Poster House in New York City. This work shows a visual style distinct from the early-20th century Russian constructivist style of big, bold, blocky typography paired with grids and diagonals, or socialist realism, a style associated with mid-20th century Soviet propaganda showing images of people working together in solidarity or depicting the work of the individual as for the good of the whole.

The look of Soviet public health PSAs in the 1980s involves simple symbols like alcohol bottles and labels that are centered in the messaging. The idea is to make visual metaphors about why drinking is deadly as minimal and easy to understand as possible.

“It echoes, in many ways, all the other efforts happening in the waning days of the Soviet Union,” Van Sise tells Fast Company, which he describes as a “humanist view of the problem,” for lack of a better term, because it “focused more on individual health and wealth rather than a person’s value to the state.”

This more humanist approach to government propaganda can also been seen in other antidrug and morality PSAs of the ’80s.

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