Keep'em flying back: usable drums are like ammunition
Industrial-conservation poster: three stacked drums in red, yellow and blue point toward the viewer, with a plane's wing and propeller behind. The headline equates reusing steel drums with supplying ammunition. The technique is transfer: a household-scale chore borrows the weight of ammunition for the air war.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Government Printing Office (artist Koerner)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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 Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Government Printing Office. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1175 (NAID 514773).
Text on the object
KEEP'EM FLYING BACK usable DRUMS are like AMMUNITION don't drop-keep clean don't strip threads empty and return fast HELP THE SERVICES, THE INDUSTRY, YOURSELF [signature: KOERNER] [imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-512994] [C3-4-P]
