If you didn't want it why did you take it?

British Second World War poster issued by the Ministry of Food advocating frugality. This poster features the image of a plate on which sits an unfinished slice of bread and butter with a cigarette stubbed out on the plate. Underneath highlighted in a dark blue box is the message ' If you didn't want it why did you take it?' During the war, shortages of food were acute, so the British Government conducted an advertising campaign to alert people to the issue of food wastage. These series of posters link domestic practices with the front line, associating the private with the public war effort.