Don't get hurt. It may cost his life
Safety poster: a worker with his arm in a sling looms over a photographed soldier lying face down in sand beside a rifle and helmet. Red type reads 'Don't get hurt' and 'It may cost his life'. The tell is the link drawn between a workplace injury at home and a death at the front, a fear-appeal that transfers the soldier's loss to the worker's accident.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Department Safety Council (artist Victor Keppler)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, 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)
War Department Safety Council. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-665 (NAID 514144).
Text on the object
DON'T GET HURT IT MAY COST HIS LIFE [signature:] Victor Keppler [emblem text:] U.S. ARMY SAFETY PROGRAM [imprint:] ☆ U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O-557533 WAR DEPARTMENT SAFETY COUNCIL
