---
title: Important to service station attendants
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/important-to-service-station-attendants-opa-1942/
description: 'Text-only compliance notice in red and blue: seven numbered steps for gasoline sellers to take before filling a tank (ask for the ration book.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Important to service station attendants

[![Important to service station attendants, 1942 US poster: Text-only compliance notice in red and blue](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/important-to-service-station-attendants-opa-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/important-to-service-station-attendants-opa-1942.jpg)

# Important to service station attendants

Text-only compliance notice in red and blue: seven numbered steps for gasoline sellers to take before filling a tank (ask for the ration book, check the windshield sticker, check coupons, detach them yourself), then the warning that failure 'will violate the gasoline-rationing regulations' and a note to the public. Little persuasion technique is present; the closest is the warning of a violation, a faint fear-appeal.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
IMPORTANT
to
SERVICE STATION ATTENDANTS
BEFORE YOU SELL GASOLINE TO A CUSTOMER
Be sure to do this FIRST:
1. Ask for the Gasoline Ration Book.
2. Check sticker on windshield with book.
3. Check description on front cover with vehicle for which gasoline is being purchased.
4. Be sure the expiration date on front cover of ration book has not passed.
5. Be sure there are enough coupons good for current period to cover purchase.
6. Accept no coupons unless You detach them.
7. Follow all special instructions and regulations in checking and handling coupons.
Failure to observe these rules will violate the gasoline-rationing regulations
NOTE TO PUBLIC: DO NOT ASK GASOLINE DEALERS TO VIOLATE THE REGULATIONS
OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
Washington, D. C.
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-482008
```

[← Immunization saves lives](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/immunization-saves-lives-childrens-bureau-1942/) [Neen, Coen, ook wij burgers zullen niet dispereeren! (No, Coen, we citizens too shall not despair!) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/indie-weerbaar-neen-coen-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)