How not to win the war!
Army safety poster: a crowded cartoon camp scene of helmeted soldiers in unsafe acts (loose planks, ladders, a spinning shovel, a runaway cart) under the heading 'How NOT to win the war!' A caption challenges the reader to find 30 hazards. The technique is faint here; the cartoon everyman soldier, 'Pvt. Droop', is a plain-folks device and the game format is the persuasion.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Department Safety Council
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- War and the military, 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)
War Department Safety Council. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1014 (NAID 514540).
Text on the object
1 HOW NOT TO WIN THE WAR! There are 30 potential head-crackers, bone crushers, and flesh gougers in this scene. If you can find all 30 (and if you avoid 'em), you're a whiz-bang soldier and ought to get another stripe. If you find 20 of them you're doin' O.K. If you can't find even 10 unsafe acts - you're a Pvt. Droop and we'll be seein' you in the hospital soon! The Top Kick has a list of the boners. NAILS LEAVE WAR DEPARTMENT SAFETY COUNCIL WD Safety Poster No. 1 (Poster No. 2 on reverse side) [imprint: illegible] [bleed-through from reverse side, partly legible: SPEAKING OF FIRES . . .]
