Step on it
Company safety poster: a large work boot, seen from below, comes down on a lit cigarette whose smoke still rises, with the words 'Step on it' beneath. The looming boot and the glowing butt carry the warning (fear-appeal); the technique is faint, as the sheet is one image and a two-word instruction.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Bethlehem Steel Company
- 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, Labor
- 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)
Bethlehem Steel Company. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1808 (NAID 515487).
Text on the object
Step on it [imprint: © BETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY]
