The Cold War was a state of high tension and conflict between the United states and the former Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War 2 until the early 1990s. Both countries were the only two superpowers in the world, but had very different political and economic views. During this time, there was a lot of fear among government officials about the spread of communism. The Soviet Union controlled most of Eastern Europe and was actively trying to spread communism to the rest of the world. The US government saw labor unions, schools, and other places as vulnerable of being infiltrated by communist sympathizers, therefore many anticommunist political ads and propaganda was produced.

Many political ads produced were cartoons that used humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism. "Make Mine Freedom" is the name of a 1948 cartoon produced by Harding College to illustrate some of the good aspects of our American way of life and the peril it faced at the time from Communism. A traveling salesman called Dr. utopia, selling bottles of "ISM" (communlSM), takes in four unsuspecting dopes who believe his promises about the powers of ISM to solve all their problems. In the end, the character "John Q. Public" declaims about the way communists try to incite race hatred, class warfare, and religious intolerance, and the townspeople drive Dr. utopia out of town, pelting him with bottles of ISM as he flees.