---
title: If you can't make it don't take it!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-cant-make-it-dont-take-it-1943/
description: 'Cartoon-style food conservation poster: a wide-eyed man in a brown service cap and shirt rests his cheek on one hand and holds the other up, palm out.'
section: Collection
---

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3. If you can't make it don't take it!

[![If you can't make it don't take it!, 1943 US poster: Cartoon-style food conservation poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-cant-make-it-dont-take-it-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/if-you-cant-make-it-dont-take-it-1943.jpg)

# If you can't make it don't take it!

Cartoon-style food conservation poster: a wide-eyed man in a brown service cap and shirt rests his cheek on one hand and holds the other up, palm out, refusing a plate of food, a sandwich and a bottle of milk. A yellow badge shaped like a cartridge base reads 'Food is ammunition'. The badge borrows the weight of munitions for the plea not to waste food.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT
Don't Take It!
FOOD IS AMMUNITION
DON'T WASTE IT
☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943—O—534432
```

[← If you ask me, it's HOME they're fighting for!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-ask-me-its-home-crosley-1943/) [If you tell where he's going... He may never get there! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-tell-where-hes-going-falter-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)