---
title: Foreign body in eye?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/foreign-body-in-eye-1941/
description: 'Navy first-aid safety poster: a large drawn eye with a goose-stepping, saluting caricature of an Axis officer (swastika armband) standing in the pupil.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Foreign body in eye?

**Content note:** Caricature of a goose-stepping, saluting Axis officer with a swastika armband drawn inside an eye as the 'foreign body'. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Foreign body in eye?, 1941 US poster: Navy first-aid safety poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/foreign-body-in-eye-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/foreign-body-in-eye-1941.jpg)

# Foreign body in eye?

Navy first-aid safety poster: a large drawn eye with a goose-stepping, saluting caricature of an Axis officer (swastika armband) standing in the pupil, with the headline 'Foreign body in eye?' and the line 'Next step get first aid or infection may result!'. The enemy figure stands in for the speck, and the warning rests on fear of infection.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
FOREIGN BODY IN EYE?
NEXT STEP GET FIRST AID OR INFECTION MAY RESULT!
[signature: Chuck Thorndike]
NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER
```

[← For victory... put at least 10% of every pay into War Bonds!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/for-victory-put-at-least-10-percent-into-war-bonds-hitler-1941/) [Forest Defense Is National Defense →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/forest-defense-is-national-defense-forest-service-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)