---
title: 'Be watchful for danger: look every way before crossing'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/look-every-way-before-crossing-aaa-1942/
description: 'Pedestrian-safety sheet in two panels. Top: a lookout in a hooded coat and goggles scans with binoculars toward a steamer at sea.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Be watchful for danger: look every way before crossing

[![Be watchful for danger: look every way before crossing, 1942 US poster: Pedestrian-safety sheet in two panels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/look-every-way-before-crossing-aaa-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/look-every-way-before-crossing-aaa-1942.jpg)

# Be watchful for danger: look every way before crossing

Pedestrian-safety sheet in two panels. Top: a lookout in a hooded coat and goggles scans with binoculars toward a steamer at sea, under 'Be watchful for danger'. Bottom: a figure on a kerb with arrows pointing to cars from several directions, under 'Look every way before crossing'. The wartime lookout is set beside the traffic message to lend it the same alertness (transfer), with a mild danger cue.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
BE WATCHFUL
FOR
DANGER
LOOK EVERY
WAY
BEFORE
CROSSING
[imprint:] S. S. P. No. 144
Copyright 1942
American Automobile Association
Safety & Traffic Engineering Dept.
"VICTORY HEROES" SERIES
Accidents Are Avoidable
Alertness Avoids Accidents
[logo:] AAA
```

[← Listen! The enemy may be talking. Don't talk! The enemy may be listening.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/listen-the-enemy-may-be-talking-1942/) [Lookout Monks! Here's Your Plane Warning! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lookout-monks-heres-your-plane-warning-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)