Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
ATS as Signal Operators, 1939 UK poster: Three uniformed women work at signalling equipment beneath the large letters 'ATS'

ATS as Signal Operators

Three uniformed women work at signalling equipment beneath the large letters 'ATS' and the line 'ATS as Signal Operators'. The text says operators send and receive messages 'swiftly, accurately'; the tell for glittering generalities is that those virtue words stand in for any detail of pay, terms or risk.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Glittering generalities
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
UK government, Auxiliary Territorial Service recruiting (imprint: printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Multi Machine Plates Ltd., London)
Region
Western and Central Europe
Country
United Kingdom
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Churchill Government
Leader
Winston Churchill
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Recruit
Themes
Gender and suffrage, War and the military
Event
World War II
Regime
Churchill wartime government
Leader
Winston Churchill
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 Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights
Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
UK government (HMSO); printer Multi Machine Plates Ltd. Via U.S. National Archives, RG 44.

Text on the object

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

ATS
AS SIGNAL OPERATORS

Day and night, at home and abroad, ATS
operators send and receive messages,
swiftly, accurately...

PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY MULTI MACHINE PLATES LTD. LONDON E.C.4. 51-3715

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