Forest Fires Aid the Enemy: Crush out your cigarette
Forest-fire prevention poster: a large painted hand presses a cigarette stub out on a rock beside a tuft of dry grass, under the headline 'Forest Fires Aid the Enemy'. The tell is the headline's link between a careless cigarette and help to the enemy, an appeal to fear and duty aimed at smokers.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, with State Forest Service
- 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, War and the military
- 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)
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, with State Forest Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-824 (NAID 514319).
Text on the object
FOREST FIRES AID THE ENEMY Crush out your cigarette U. S. DEPT. AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE STATE FOREST SERVICE [imprint:] ☆ U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—513709
