Please Pass Down the Car: Someday You Might Want to Get in, Yourself!
A cartoon shows a packed Underground car doorway of scowling passengers while a lone commuter on the platform loses his hat and case. The tell is the everyman cartoon figure standing in for the viewer, with the appeal ('someday you might want to get in, yourself') resting on shared commuter identity rather than a stated argument. It is a wartime travel-courtesy notice, not a combat message.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- London Transport (Underground roundel); artist Cyril Kenneth Bird (Fougasse); 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
- Held by NARA, Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision (UK sheet, c. 1939-1945; Fougasse, d. 1965)
London Transport; artist Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird); printed by Fosh & Cross Ltd. National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-340.
Text on the object
Fougasse Please pass down the car: __ SOMEDAY YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET IN, YOURSELF! [imprint:] FOSH & CROSS, LTD., LONDON
