Lick the platter clean. Don't waste food.
A cartoon elderly man in a green cap and a smiling girl in an apron hold up an empty round platter, under the headline 'Lick the platter clean' and the line 'Don't waste FOOD'. The technique is faint here: a friendly, folk-tale style carries a plain household request, with no enemy and no stated reason.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Food Administration (artist signed Vernon Grant)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- 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)
War Food Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-137 (NAID 513585).
Text on the object
LICK THE PLATTER CLEAN Don't Waste FOOD [imprint: WAR FOOD ADMINISTRATION; remaining small print illegible] [signature: Vernon Grant]
