---
title: Let's smash the bottleneck
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/appreciate-america-smash-bottleneck-1941/
description: Two hands swing sledgehammers labelled EMPLOYER and EMPLOYEE at a funnel-shaped bottleneck choking a stream of aircraft, tanks, ships and shells.
section: Collection
---

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3. Let's smash the bottleneck

[![Let's smash the bottleneck, 1941 US poster: Two hands swing sledgehammers labelled EMPLOYER and EMPLOYEE at a funnel-shaped](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/appreciate-america-smash-bottleneck-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/appreciate-america-smash-bottleneck-1941.jpg)

# Let's smash the bottleneck

Two hands swing sledgehammers labelled EMPLOYER and EMPLOYEE at a funnel-shaped bottleneck choking a stream of aircraft, tanks, ships and shells. The tell is a joint-effort call aimed at both sides of industry; the technique is faint here, mostly a shared-action appeal.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
APPRECIATE ★
AMERICA
EMPLOYER
EMPLOYEE
LET'S SMASH THE
Bottleneck
RED FOR COURAGE
WHITE FOR HONOR
BLUE FOR JUSTICE
[imprint:] COPYRIGHT, 1941, APPRECIATE AMERICA INC., 130 NO. WELLS ST., CHICAGO, ILL.
```

[← Remember! Don Winslow says: Remember your duty to America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/appreciate-america-remember-don-winslow-1941/) [Stop the fifth column →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/appreciate-america-stop-fifth-column-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)