When you scrap a job, you scrap all the labour that's gone with it...

British Second World War cautionary poster depicts a dejected labourer surrounded by scrap. A sign above him reads 'SCRAP HEAP' and the message and title of the poster appear below 'PLEASE DON'T ADD TO THE HEAP!'. This one of a series posters by Cyril Kenneth Bird (1887-1965). Bird, who was a Punch cartoonist, took on the 'Fougasse' pseudonym in the First World War, after the French term for a small land mine 'which might or might not hit the mark'. His approach to the propaganda poster was based on overcoming three obstacles. He wrote:

'Firstly, a general aversion to reading any notice of any sort; secondly, a general disinclination to believe that any notice, even if it was read, can possibly be addressed to oneself; thirdly, a general unwillingness even so to remember the message long enough to do anything about it.'

In overcoming these obstacles, Fougasse used a simple approach: humour, simple stylisation and the uncomplicated communication of messages.