Bird's design helped keep secrets in Second World War

>> NOSTALGIA readers may recall mention here recently (“Picture perfect posters from famous names in art and design” Citizen/ Echo June 5, 2025) of Cyril Bird.

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A former pupil of Cheltenham College, Cyril Kenneth Bird is best remembered for the “Careless talk costs lives” poster campaign he devised for the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War.

Concerned that casual conversations might be overheard by German spies and relayed to the Nazi war machine, the British government tasked the Ministry of Information with producing a series of posters. These were to warn workers of the need to remain tight lipped about their jobs.

The Ministry set its copywriters and illustrators to come up with a campaign that would fulfil the government's brief and the outcome was a poster with the less than snappy slogan “Do not discuss anything which might be of national importance. The consequence of any such indiscretion may be the loss of many lives.”

Nobody got the message. Because they didn't notice the wordy notices.