---
title: Don't gamble with death
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-gamble-with-death-1941/
description: 'Industrial-safety poster: a hooded skeleton holds a hand of cards labelled ''Lost earnings'', ''Lost health'', ''Want'' and ''Physical injury'' over stacks'
section: Collection
---

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3. Don't gamble with death

[![Don't gamble with death, 1941 US poster: Industrial-safety poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-gamble-with-death-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-gamble-with-death-1941.jpg)

# Don't gamble with death

Industrial-safety poster: a hooded skeleton holds a hand of cards labelled 'Lost earnings', 'Lost health', 'Want' and 'Physical injury' over stacks of gambling chips, against red and black. The text tells workers to protect themselves and use all safety devices. The tell is a fear-appeal personifying death as a gambler dealing consequences.

## 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

```
DON'T GAMBLE
WITH DEATH
LOST EARNINGS
LOST HEALTH
WANT
PHYSICAL INJURY
PROTECT YOURSELF...
USE ALL SAFETY DEVICES
[signature:] Pacher
[imprint:] LITHO IN U. S. A.
[imprint:] 8-167
[imprint:] Copyright, BRESSLER EDITORIAL CARTOONS, Inc., NEW YORK
```

[← Don't fall for enemy propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-fall-for-enemy-propaganda-vfw-1941/) [Don't let 'em down: Keep 'em flying with spares →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-let-em-down-keep-em-flying-with-spares-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)