Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
They Need Your Waste Rubber, 1939 UK poster: Four panels labelled Commando, Paratrooper, Airmen and Infantry show service

They Need Your Waste Rubber

Four panels labelled Commando, Paratrooper, Airmen and Infantry show service personnel with red arrows pointing to rubber items such as helmet fittings, equipment and a dinghy. The headline 'They need your waste rubber' borrows the soldiers' standing to ask civilians to hand in scrap (transfer).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
H.M. Stationery Office (printed for); printed by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and 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
Themes
Home front, War and the military
Event
World War II
Regime
Churchill wartime government
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, printed by Greycaine, 1939-1945. US National Archives (NARA) WWII Foreign Posters, 44-PF series.

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

COMMANDO
PARATROOPER

They need your
WASTE RUBBER

AIRMEN
INFANTRY

Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaines. Watford & London. 51-2427

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