Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Sure we'll push 'em back! If you'll back us up, 1939 Canada poster: Photographs of a helmeted motorcycle dispatch rider

Sure we'll push 'em back! If you'll back us up

Photographs of a helmeted motorcycle dispatch rider with a submachine gun and a signaller at a field radio sit under the headline 'Sure we'll push 'em back!' and the condition 'If you'll back us up'. The soldiers' authority is borrowed for the civilian ask (transfer), and the shared 'us' ties the reader to the fighting men (identity-fusion).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

TransferIdentity fusion
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
Department of Munitions and Supply for Canada
Region
North America
Country
Canada
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Mackenzie King Government
Leader
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes
War and the military, Home front
Event
World War II
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights
Public domain (Canadian Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired; no URAA restoration)
Department of Munitions and Supply (Canada). U.S. National Archives, World War II Foreign Posters (NAID 44267809).

Text on the object

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

Sure
we'll push
'em back!
IF YOU'LL BACK US UP
This message is issued by the Department of Munitions and Supply for Canada

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