Don't smoke in bed!
Housing safety poster in verse: a cartoon worker holds up an asbestos sheet beside a charred black shape on a bed frame, while a man with a cigarette looks on. The rhyme jokes about a 'cast-iron mattress' for smokers; the technique is faint here, with fire shown only as the burn mark.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Federal Public Housing Authority
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, 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)
Federal Public Housing Authority. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-807 (NAID 514302).
Text on the object
For the Smoker-in-Bed Here's a gadget real neat: A cast-iron mattress And a fireproof sheet. ASBESTOS DON'T SMOKE IN BED! FEDERAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943 O - 520149 SAFETY POSTER No. 1
