---
title: '''Back Room Boys'' They Also Serve - Car Maintenance'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-room-boys-car-maintenance-1939/
description: A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room Boys' series shows a man in a cap at a forge hammer and a woman in a pink blouse at a lever.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. 'Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Car Maintenance

[!['Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Car Maintenance, 1939 UK poster: A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room Boys'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-room-boys-car-maintenance-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-room-boys-car-maintenance-1939.jpg)

# 'Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Car Maintenance

A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room Boys' series shows a man in a cap at a forge hammer and a woman in a pink blouse at a lever, with a pencil drawing of a workshop above, captioned 'CAR MAINTENANCE' and 'They also serve'. The tell is the virtue phrase 'They also serve' applied to maintenance staff (glittering generalities) and the depiction of ordinary workers at their jobs (plain-folks); it names no enemy and gives no figures.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

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

```
'BACK ROOM BOYS'
CAR MAINTENANCE
'THEY ALSO SERVE'
LONDON TRANSPORT
FRED TAYLOR
THE BAYNARD PRESS
```

[← 'Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Cable Maintenance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-room-boys-cable-maintenance-1939/) ['Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Power Control →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-room-boys-power-control-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)