It Does Matter: Country Pays For It - Don't Waste Here the Fuel You Save at Home!
A painter in overalls, drawn from behind, corrects a hand-lettered slogan by striking out 'Doesn't' and 'Firm' and writing 'DOES' and 'COUNTRY', so it reads 'It does matter: the country pays for it'. The tell is the everyday workman as the speaker, and the shift of the cost of waste from the firm to the nation.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Fuel and Power; artist Cyril Kenneth Bird (Fougasse); printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Stafford & Co., Ltd., Netherfield, Nottingham
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- 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)
Ministry of Fuel and Power; item from the US National Archives, WWII Foreign Posters (NARA 44266694).
Text on the object
IT DOES [handwritten, red, replacing struck-out 'DOESN'T'] MATTER: THE COUNTRY [handwritten, red, replacing struck-out 'FIRM'] PAYS FOR IT Don't waste HERE - the Fuel you save AT HOME! Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Stafford & Co., Ltd., Netherfield, Nottingham. 51-3172 Issued by the Ministry of Fuel and Power [signature in the drawing:] Fougasse
