Accidents are Bottlenecks - Prevent Them
A ship's hull is stuck inside a green bottle, with an anchor and starfish below, under the line 'Accidents are bottlenecks'. The tell for transfer is the borrowing of the wartime production-bottleneck idea to frame workplace accidents as a delay to the war effort rather than only a personal harm.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Labour and National Service, produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; artist Pat Keely; printer Loxley Bros. Ltd.
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- 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 Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Ministry of Labour and National Service; Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents; artist Pat Keely, 1942. Via U.S. National Archives, RG 44.
Text on the object
Pat Keely '42 ACCIDENTS ARE BOTTLENECKS PREVENT THEM Issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service and produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Terminal House, 52, Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.1. M.L/76 Printed by LOXLEY BROS. LTD.
