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
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc. (artist Pacher)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- 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)
Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc.. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-664 (NAID 514143).
Text on the object
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
