![Grow Your Own Food [2], 1939 UK poster: A narrow strip poster shows the slogan 'grow your own' on a signboard planted](../images/uk-grow-your-own-food-hmso-1939.jpg)
Grow Your Own Food [2]
A narrow strip poster shows the slogan 'grow your own' on a signboard planted in a field, with the word 'food' spelled out in turnip and leek shapes under a blue sky. It carries no argument beyond the instruction; the tell is the wordplay of making the produce itself form the word.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- H.M. Stationery Office (issuing department not named on the poster); artist Hans Schleger (signed 'Zero'); printed by Fosh & Cross 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
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Theme
- Home front
- 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)
H.M. Stationery Office (issuing department not named on the poster); item from the US National Archives, WWII Foreign Posters (NARA 44266550).
Text on the object
grow your own food PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY FOSH & CROSS LTD., LONDON [signature:] ZERO
