---
title: Be smart, act dumb! Loose talk can cost lives
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-smart-act-dumb-1942/
description: 'Loose-talk security poster: a blank-faced man in a hat and bow tie is flanked by two oversized, scowling profile caricatures of enemy figures leaning'
section: Collection
---

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3. Be smart, act dumb! Loose talk can cost lives

**Content note:** Two exaggerated profile caricatures of enemy figures with oversized ears and scowling faces whisper to a blank-faced civilian. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Be smart, act dumb! Loose talk can cost lives, 1942 US poster: Loose-talk security poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/be-smart-act-dumb-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/be-smart-act-dumb-1942.jpg)

# Be smart, act dumb! Loose talk can cost lives

Loose-talk security poster: a blank-faced man in a hat and bow tie is flanked by two oversized, scowling profile caricatures of enemy figures leaning in with large ears, with 'Be smart, act dumb!' above and 'Loose talk can cost lives' on yellow bands. The tell is the listening ears and the stated cost in lives: a fear-appeal urging civilians to say nothing.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
BE SMART
ACT DUMB!
LOOSE TALK
CAN COST LIVES
[signature:] O. SOGLOW
[imprint:] ©1942
[imprint:] DISTRIBUTED IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL DEFENSE, AND AS A MEANS OF OBTAINING FUNDS FOR AMBULANCES WHEREVER NEEDED. BRITISH AND AMERICAN AMBULANCE CORPS, INC., 420 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY
[imprint:] LITHO. IN U.S.A.
```

[← Be alert for turning cars](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-alert-for-turning-cars-aaa-1942/) [Become a nurse, your country needs you →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/become-a-nurse-your-country-needs-you-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)