---
title: Our next boss? Not if we keep 'em firing!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-next-boss-not-if-we-keep-em-firing-1942/
description: 'Corporate war-production poster: a caricatured Japanese general with exaggerated lips and teeth, sword drawn, stands beside the U.S. Capitol flying'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Our next boss? Not if we keep 'em firing!

**Content note:** Racial caricature of a Japanese officer with exaggerated lips and teeth, shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Our next boss? Not if we keep 'em firing!, 1942 US poster: Corporate war-production poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/our-next-boss-not-if-we-keep-em-firing-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/our-next-boss-not-if-we-keep-em-firing-1942.jpg)

# Our next boss? Not if we keep 'em firing!

Corporate war-production poster: a caricatured Japanese general with exaggerated lips and teeth, sword drawn, stands beside the U.S. Capitol flying a rising-sun flag, under the headline 'Our next boss?' and the line 'Not if we keep 'em firing!'. A tank and a fighter plane sit in the foot band. The enemy is drawn as a racial caricature and the image implies occupation of Washington, a fear-appeal that asks workers to keep up output.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
- OUR
NEXT
BOSS?
NOT IF WE
KEEP 'EM FIRING!
[imprint: COPYRIGHT, 1942 - OLDSMOBILE DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, LANSING, MICHIGAN]
[imprint: LITHO. IN U.S.A. -18-]
```

[← Our Navy Strikes Back!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-navy-strikes-back-1942/) [Our son is in the US Coast Guard →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-son-is-in-the-us-coast-guard-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)