Put Out Your Old Hot Water Bottle for Salvage
A large cracked and creased rubber hot water bottle sits above a block of bold text asking householders to put it out for salvage. The tell for plain-folks is the use of an everyday domestic object to make a national collection drive a personal household chore; the poster gives no reason why rubber is needed.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British government poster, 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)
H.M. Stationery Office, date unknown (1939-1945). U.S. National Archives (RG 44), World War II Foreign Posters.
Text on the object
PUT OUT YOUR OLD HOT WATER BOTTLE FOR SALVAGE Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Stafford & Co. Ltd., Netherfield, Nottingham. 51-2365
