---
title: Be sure the driver sees you!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-sure-the-driver-sees-you-1941/
description: 'Pedestrian-safety poster: a black silhouette of a walker in the lower left faces the glowing headlights and grille of an approaching car in the dark.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Be sure the driver sees you!

[![Be sure the driver sees you!, 1941 US poster: Pedestrian-safety poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/be-sure-the-driver-sees-you-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/be-sure-the-driver-sees-you-1941.jpg)

# Be sure the driver sees you!

Pedestrian-safety poster: a black silhouette of a walker in the lower left faces the glowing headlights and grille of an approaching car in the dark, with 'Be sure the driver sees you!' in yellow lettering. The tell is the unlit, faceless figure set against the lamps, a fear-appeal about night traffic danger.

## 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 Sure
THE DRIVER
SEES YOU !
[imprint:] Posters designed by Robert L. Steinle, Lansing, Michigan, as part of a Pedestrian Protection Program developed for the City of Detroit by its Traffic Engineering Bureau
[imprint:] WATCH WHILE YOU WALK
[imprint:] © 1941, American Automobile Association. Issued by AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION as a feature of its National Pedestrian Protection Program
[imprint:] AAA
[imprint:] Litho in U. S. A.
```

[← Be silent: the enemy is listening (Douglas War Production Drive cartoon sheet)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-silent-douglas-war-production-drive-morehouse/) [Beat the promise: You and I put the squeeze on the Japanese! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/beat-the-promise-squeeze-the-japanese-1941/)

## 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)