Carelessness means DEATH: take care of your gas mask
Equipment-care poster: a gas mask with a cracked right lens faces a green skull, under 'Carelessness means DEATH'. Smaller text tells soldiers not to sit on the mask or use it as a pillow or knapsack. The skull is the fear-appeal.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army Conservation Program (Army Conservation Project No. 6-C-1), artist Maurer
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Army Conservation Program. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-559 (NAID 514038).
Text on the object
CARELESSNESS means DEATH TAKE CARE OF YOUR GAS MASK! Don't sit on it... It's not a Pillow- or a Knapsack! [imprint:] SAVE U.S. ARMY CONSERVATION PROGRAM [imprint:] ARMY CONSERVATION PROJECT NO. 6-C-1 [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943—O—[illegible] [signature:] MAURER
