You Never Know Who’s Listening: Careless Talk Costs Lives

You Never Know Who’s Listening: Careless Talk Costs Lives

Bird, Cyril Kenneth, also known as Fougasse

World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda
World War, 1939-1945--Great Britain
Careless Talk Costs Lives
British Home Front
Wartime security

This British World War II propaganda poster shows two women talking on a bus while Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring sit behind them and secretly listen. The text says, “You never know who’s listening! Careless Talk Costs Lives.” The poster was part of Britain’s wartime security propaganda campaign. It warned civilians not to talk openly about military or wartime information because enemy spies might be listening. This source is useful for my topic because it shows how propaganda was used to control everyday civilian behavior, protect wartime secrets, and support the British home front.

Ministry of Information

Imperial War Museums

1942

Still Image

Poster; photolithograph on paper. Support: height 320 mm, width 203 mm.

Art.IWM PST 0142

You Never Know Who’s Listening: Careless Talk Costs Lives. Imperial War Museums, Art.IWM PST 0142. Poster produced in Great Britain during the Second World War.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/9810

English

Part of the Imperial War Museums poster collection. Related to the Careless Talk Costs Lives propaganda campaign and the British Home Front, 1939-1945.

Great Britain; Second World War; 1942; British Home Front

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