John Bull Puts First Things First
A tall sheet charts refrigerators and vacuum cleaners as a percentage of 1939 output (1940 and 1941 'export & government orders only') and radio sets as icons of 60,000 sets, falling from 1939 to a 1942 estimate. The tell is card-stacking: household goods are charted only as shrinking shares of 1939, with no absolute numbers for refrigerators or vacuum cleaners.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Chromoworks Ltd., London (printer; no issuing body named)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Held by NARA, Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Issuer not named on the sheet; printed by Chromoworks Ltd.. National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-400h.
Text on the object
John Bull puts first things first HOW BRITAIN'S WAR EFFORT RESTRICTS HOUSEHOLD PURCHASES REFRIGERATORS 1939 1940 EXPORT & GOVERNMENT ORDERS ONLY 1941 EXPORT & GOVERNMENT ORDERS ONLY VACUUM CLEANERS 1939 1940 EXPORT & GOVERNMENT ORDERS ONLY 1941 EXPORT & GOVERNMENT ORDERS ONLY RADIO SETS EACH [radio icon] EQUALS 60,000 SETS 1939 1940 1941 1942 estimated annual production G.P.G./AM./2. PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY CHROMOWORKS LTD., LONDON 51-2968.
