Keep cigarettes and matches out of trash container
Navy safety poster in brown and red: a large hand in a white cuff drops a lit match and a cigarette towards an open trash container holding crumpled paper, beside the line 'Keep cigarettes and matches out of trash container'. The fear-appeal is faint and implied: the falling flame shows the fire risk without depicting a fire.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Navy Department, Safety Poster (artist Thorndike)
- 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, Security and surveillance
- 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)
Navy Department. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1164 (NAID 514760).
Text on the object
Keep cigarettes and matches OUT OF TRASH CONTAINER [signature: Thorndike] NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER [imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-589551] [handwritten pencil note, lower left: fire / Navy safety]
