---
title: Splinters are poisoned arrows - get First Aid
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-splinters-are-poisoned-arrows-first-aid-1942/
description: A giant red hand is pierced by arrows shot by tiny archers standing on a packing crate. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

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3. Splinters are poisoned arrows - get First Aid

[![Splinters are poisoned arrows - get First Aid, 1942 UK poster: A giant red hand is pierced by arrows shot by tiny archers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-splinters-are-poisoned-arrows-first-aid-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-splinters-are-poisoned-arrows-first-aid-1942.jpg)

# Splinters are poisoned arrows - get First Aid

A giant red hand is pierced by arrows shot by tiny archers standing on a packing crate. The metaphor casts a splinter as a poisoned arrow to warn workers of infection and urge immediate first aid; the danger imagery is the fear-appeal tell.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
SPLINTERS
are poisoned arrows - get First Aid

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.

ML/71
Printed by LOXLEY BROS. LTD.

[signature in the artwork:] Pat Keely '42
```

[← Scrap It: Before It Scraps You](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-scrap-it-before-it-scraps-you-1942/) [Telephone Line Time is Precious - Keep Your Talks Short →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-telephone-line-time-is-precious-keely-haycock-1942/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
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- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)