'Someone forgot that food costs lives' (British food-waste poster)
A painted plate holds leftover food, a used knife, a cigarette end and a torn piece of bread, above a slanted red panel. The tell is the headline's claim that wasted food 'costs lives', which attaches the lives lost to the plate without stating how.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- His Majesty's Stationery Office (printed by J. Howitt & Son, Ltd., 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)
His Majesty's Stationery Office; printer J. Howitt & Son, Ltd., Nottingham. Via the US National Archives (NARA, WWII Foreign Posters).
Text on the object
"Someone forgot that food costs lives" 3453006-2 Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by J. Howitt & Son, Ltd., Nottm. 51-3766
