"I hear they want more Bovril. My place is at the front" (Bovril poster, 1915)
Two-sheet colour lithograph poster in which a bull walks up to an army recruiting table draped with the Union Flag, where a smiling sergeant and an officer wait, under the words 'I hear they want more Bovril. My place is at the front' and the tag 'British to the backbone'. The recruiting table, the flag and the national slogan are lent to a beef-extract brand, so enlistment stands in for the product's claim.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Bovril Ltd (London); imprint S.H.B. Ltd
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Asquith Government
- Leader
- Herbert Henry Asquith
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Asquith government
- Leader
- H. H. Asquith
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1915; LoC: No known restrictions on publication)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-11366 and LC-USZC4-11367 (two sheets joined)
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
"I hear they want more BOVRIL My place is at the front" BRITISH TO THE BACKBONE S.H.B. Ltd. Regd. No. A 508
The imprint at lower right is small; 'Ltd.' is superscript.
