Quiet! Loose talk can cost lives
A hand in a striped, star-spangled sleeve clamps over the mouth of a wide-eyed man in a bowler hat, under 'Quiet!' and the strip lines 'Loose talk can cost lives'. The forced silence and the cost-in-lives claim are a fear-appeal; the sleeve ties the demand to the national government. This is a different design from the Holmgren sheet of the same title.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British and American Ambulance Corps, Inc. (artist Holcomb)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, 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)
British and American Ambulance Corps, Inc.. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1603 (NAID 515268).
Text on the object
QUIET! LOOSE TALK CAN COST LIVES [signature:] Holcomb [imprint:] ©1942 [imprint:] DISTRIBUTED IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL DEFENSE, AND AS A MEANS OF OBTAINING FUNDS FOR AMBULANCES WHEREVER NEEDED. BRITISH AND AMERICAN AMBULANCE CORPS, INC., 420 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY [imprint:] LITHO. IN U.S.A.
