Clean up oil spots: look where you step
Navy Department safety poster: a cartoon workman with a startled face skids through the air, one boot kicked high and oil drops flying off the sole, against a red disc. The headline gives the instruction. The appeal is a comic version of fear-appeal, showing the pratfall that follows an unattended oil spill.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy Department (Safety Poster), artist Thorndike
- 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
- Themes
- War and the military, Health
- 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. Navy. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-581 (NAID 514061).
Text on the object
Clean up oil spots LOOK WHERE YOU STEP NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER [signature: THORNDIKE] [imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—608622]
