Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will, 1939 UK poster: The first mass poster of the Ministry of Information

Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory

The first mass poster of the Ministry of Information, put up across Britain from September 1939. It names three virtues and promises victory but gives no instruction and no fact, under the royal crown. Mass-Observation reported a largely negative response: the line was thought too long, and some read the underlined 'your' against 'us' as the public's sacrifice winning victory for the government and the upper classes. The rest of the campaign was dropped in October 1939.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Date
1939
Made by
UK Ministry of Information (Home Publicity series)

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
Region
Western and Central Europe
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Chamberlain Government
Leader
Neville Chamberlain
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Reassure
Themes
Home front, War and the military
Event
World War II
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Rights
Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired; PD-UKGov)
Original: Government of the United Kingdom (Ministry of Information), 1939. Vector redrawing: Ericmetro, Wikimedia Commons.

Text on the object

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

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

YOUR COURAGE
YOUR CHEERFULNESS
YOUR RESOLUTION
WILL BRING
US VICTORY

The crown at the top is a graphic device, not text. 'Your' at the start of each of the first three lines is underlined in the original design.