Sir, Don't Waste While Your Wife Saves: Adopt the Doctrine of the Clean Plate, Do Your Share

A heavy, bespectacled man in a dinner jacket smokes over a laden table while two waiters hurry in behind him; large lettering addresses him as 'Sir' and sets his waste against his wife's saving. The tell is social shaming of a named type of household member, paired with an appeal to 'do your share' as everyone else is said to be doing.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal Bandwagon

Date: 1918
Period: First World War
Made by: U.S. Food Administration
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Wilson Administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes: Home front, Gender and suffrage
Event: World War I
Regime: Wilson administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Food Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-130.

Text on the object

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

Sir-
don't waste while
your wife saves
Adopt the doctrine
of the clean plate
—do your share

UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION

[artist's signature at right, in stylised lettering: appears to read 'Crawford Young']

The artist's signature is stylised and the reading is not certain.