Sugar Means Ships: Every Spoonful, Every Sip, Means Less for a Fighter
A young man and woman share a sweet drink at an ice-cream and soda counter, drawn in black and white, beside a panel of text on sugar imports and shipping. The panel gives a figure of 400,000,000 pounds of sugar imported for sweet drinks in one year and says the ships are now needed for troops. The tell is the linkage in the caption: each spoonful or sip is presented as taking something from a fighter.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- 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, Economy and finance
- 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-124.
Text on the object
Sugar means Ships The sugar used in sweet drinks must be brought to America in ships. Last year 400,000,000 lbs of sugar were imported for sweet drinks. These ships must now be used to carry soldiers to the front Drink less sweetened beverages We are at war ICE CREAM AND ICE COLD SODA [artist's initials, lower right of picture: M. J.] Every Spoonful — Every Sip - Means less for a Fighter U. S. Food Administration
The sign in the picture reads 'ICE CREAM AND ICE COLD SODA'. The initials at lower right of the picture read 'M. J.'.
