---
title: 'Shoptalk may be Sabotalk: The Walls have Ears'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-shoptalk-may-be-sabotalk-walls-have-ears-1942/
description: A huge striped ear looms over a small red factory in a dark blue field, under the lines 'Shoptalk may be Sabotalk' and 'THE WALLS HAVE EARS'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Shoptalk may be Sabotalk: The Walls have Ears

[![Shoptalk may be Sabotalk: The Walls have Ears, 1942 Canada poster: A huge striped ear looms over a small red factory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-shoptalk-may-be-sabotalk-walls-have-ears-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-shoptalk-may-be-sabotalk-walls-have-ears-1942.jpg)

# Shoptalk may be Sabotalk: The Walls have Ears

A huge striped ear looms over a small red factory in a dark blue field, under the lines 'Shoptalk may be Sabotalk' and 'THE WALLS HAVE EARS'. The oversized ear stages an unseen listener as an imminent threat to war production, and the slogan offers silence about work as the protection.

## 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

```
Shoptalk may be
Sabotalk
THE WALLS HAVE EARS

MORRIS
ISSUED BY WARTIME INFORMATION BOARD, OTTAWA. PRINTED IN CANADA.
DESIGN, COURTESY WALLS HAVE EARS ORGANIZATION
AG-18
```

[← Save Waste Bones - they make glue for aircraft and are used for explosives](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-save-waste-bones-gardiner-1942/) [Somebody talked! The Walls Have Ears →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-somebody-talked-the-walls-have-ears-1942/)

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- [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.
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