Keppler, Propaganda

            This is a poster from the World War II Ministry of Information in the United States (Home Sweet Home Front). It was created by Victor Keppler in 1944 (Keppler). This campaign was made to warn people of the dangers of speaking about the government and giving information to the enemy sympathizers. The Ministry of Information posted these posters with the slogan “Careless talk costs lives”.

            This poster shows a black and white photo of a woman with giant letters spelling “Wanted! For murder” and below the picture it states, “Her careless talk costs lives”. By using a woman as the main focus of this piece of propaganda gives a sense that woman have “loose lips” or should not be trusted with information. This relates back to the theme because the government is belittling the image of a woman as a gossiper. The woman in the propaganda is also blamed for the loss of lives because she spoke carelessly. This puts emphasis that woman are blamed for some of the unfortunate losses of soldiers and people fighting for the nation. The words within this propaganda piece are very bold especially with the red coloring and the large size of the letters. This piece was meant to gain attention by everyone around it. Many people might have seen this image and realized that they might not be able to talk to women about the pressing issues of the war because the fear that they would spread the information to an enemy spy. The woman in the propaganda piece is also depicted smiling slyly and her eyes have a stare that almost looks like she is gossiping or telling secrets about the government to others on purpose in order to sabotage her country. This creates an image that women are the enemy as well.