'Thousands are Waiting to Use What You're Making', 1939 Canada poster: A cartoon crowd of smiling sailors, soldiers

'Thousands are Waiting to Use What You're Making' (Canadian Department of Munitions and Supply)

A cartoon crowd of smiling sailors, soldiers and airmen presses behind a machinist at his lathe. The headline says thousands are waiting to use what he makes: the crowd of ordinary, cheerful servicemen stands in for the whole fighting force (bandwagon), and the workman is drawn as one of them (plain folks).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Plain folks Bandwagon

Date: 1939
Period: Second World War
Made by: Government of Canada, Department of Munitions and Supply; artist W. A. Winter
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: Home front, Labor, War and the military
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 before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Government of Canada, Department of Munitions and Supply; artist W. A. Winter. U.S. National Archives, NAID 44267865 (44-PF-705).

Text on the object

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

Thousands are waiting
To use what you're making

This message is issued by the Department of Munitions and Supply for Canada

[on sailors' caps:] H.M.C.S.
[signature:] W.A. Winter