Someone Talked!
A giant hand made of a newspaper page, its headline reading 'U.S. Ship Sunk By...' and 'Lives Lost Aboard Torpedoed Transport', points a finger down at a small man in a suit and hat walking below under the title 'Someone Talked!'. The oversized finger puts blame for a ship loss on an ordinary civilian's talk, a fear-appeal about careless speech.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- R. Hoe & Co., Inc. (National War Poster Competition award); artist Koerner
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- 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)
R. Hoe & Co., Inc. (National War Poster Competition award). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-372 (NAID 513824).
Text on the object
Someone Talked! [newspaper hand] ...NEWS / NO. 257—DAILY. U.S. SHIP SUNK BY [...]00 LIVES LOST ABOARD [T]ORPEDOED TRANSPORT THREE SUNK / Losses in We[...] Now Tot[...] [newspaper body columns: partly legible, not transcribed] [signature: KOERNER] WINNER R. HOE & CO., INC. AWARD—NATIONAL WAR POSTER COMPETITION HELD UNDER AUSPICES OF ARTISTS FOR VICTORY, INC.—COUNCIL FOR DEMOCRACY—MUSEUM OF MODERN ART REPRODUCED THROUGH COURTESY OF R. HOE & CO., INC., NEW YORK, N. Y. © R. HOE & CO., INC. LITHOGRAPHED IN U. S. A. ON HOE SUPER-OFFSET PRESS BY GRINNELL LITHOGRAPHIC CO., NEW YORK, N. Y.
