Careless Talk Costs Lives
Artist
Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird)
United Kingdom, 1887 - 1965
Publisher
Ministry of Information
United Kingdom, 1917 - 1946
Date1940
Dimensions12 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. (31.1 x 20 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.6797
DescriptionFougasse was a renowned British cartoonist and the art director of Punch, a long-running satirical magazine. This poster is from a set of eight that he designed for the Ministry of Information, donating his services and trademark style of pithy messaging leavened with humor. This new approach to poster design was welcomed by the ministry; more serious, traditional posters seemed to have resulted in information overload in an increasingly disaffected public. These images show average British citizens going about their everyday business while being monitored by Hitler(s) or the corpulent figure of Hermann Göring, the Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe (German air force) that was attempting to bomb Britain into submission. Minutes taken during a British cabinet meeting on March 13, 1940, noted that Fougasse’s designs were the most popular pictorial posters, with 734,200 in circulation and a reprint order of 435,200 already placed. On View
Not on view
