---
title: An Ostrich Only Thinks He Covers Up
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ostrich-hidden-mistakes-cost-lives-1941/
description: Cartoon of an ostrich dressed in work clothes, head under a sheet of paper marked 'MISTAKES', with factory chimneys behind it.
section: Collection
---

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3. An Ostrich Only Thinks He Covers Up

[![An Ostrich Only Thinks He Covers Up, 1941 US poster: Cartoon of an ostrich dressed in work clothes, head under a sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ostrich-hidden-mistakes-cost-lives-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ostrich-hidden-mistakes-cost-lives-1941.jpg)

# An Ostrich Only Thinks He Covers Up

Cartoon of an ostrich dressed in work clothes, head under a sheet of paper marked 'MISTAKES', with factory chimneys behind it. The headline says it only thinks it covers up and the slogan 'Hidden Mistakes Cost Lives!' links concealed errors to deaths. The technique is a fear-appeal aimed at war workers.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
AN OSTRICH ONLY
THINKS HE "COVERS UP"
[on paper:] MISTAKES
HIDDEN MISTAKES
COST LIVES !
[signature:] Packer
[imprint:] PRINTED IN U.S.A.
[imprint:] Copyright, "VICTORY-BUILDERS" Division BRESSLER EDITORIAL CARTOONS, Inc., NEW YORK
```

[← Nobody loves a hot water hog](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nobody-loves-a-hot-water-hog-army-1941/) [Ours... to fight for: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ours-to-fight-for-four-freedoms-on-one-sheet-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)