`Is Hitler sleeping at your house?' The Province asks in wartime ad
The Second World War was in its fourth year in March 1943. The front-page headlines at the time were about the Allies fighting Rommel and his Afrika Korps in North Africa, and the Red Army and the Germans locked in a titanic struggle in the Soviet Union.
Everyone was being urged to be part of the war effort, even civilians back in Canada. Companies joined the fight with ads exhorting Canadians to show their patriotism, often by buying their products.
The ads from companies can be as striking as the more familiar government posters. The Ford Motor Company, for example, took out a dramatic ad in the March 20, 1943 Province that invited viewers to “Watch the '43 Fords go by!”
But the '43 Fords weren't regular vehicles — the ad showed the tanks, military trucks and ambulances the company was building for the army.
“There they go ... splitting the air with the roar of their powerful, driving engines,” said the ad. “Not the streamlined automobiles of yesterday, not yet the exciting new cars of tomorrow. These are the snub-nosed battle horses of today's war.”
Tip Top Tailors showed its contribution to “serving the finest armed forces in the world” with an ad titled “The World's Best Dressed Men”: three Canadian soldiers rushing into battle with their rifles, bayonets attached.
“In achieving an almost unheard-of rate of production of uniforms, we are proud to have served as one example of the power of Canada's productive effort,” said Tip Top.
Many ads were aimed at women, particularly those working in wartime factories. General Electric had an ad in the March 23 Vancouver Sun titled “They Call Me a Production Soldier.”
It showed a stoic woman, hair tied in a Rosie the Riveter head scarf, and lines like “Her bugle call is a factory whistle. Her battle dress is an overall. But make no mistake about it, she is an important factor in the nation's war machine.”
Of course, there were still men working on the home front. Burrard Dry Dock had an ad with a male welder lifting the front of his welding helmet with the message “Sure It's Tough ... But So Are We!”
Some of the ads are pretty funny, like a Crisco ad featuring a woman stating “My frying pan has a war job now — frying `short order' meals that are easy to digest!”
Palmolive soap had an ad featuring an attractive female factory worker being propositioned with “Okay sugar ... your time's rationed, but you look sweet to me!”
“Jeepers! When I took this job at the plant, I figured I'd given up my complexion for my country,” it read. “No time for hours with beauty preparations. Just quick soap-and water cleansing two minutes a day with Palmolive soap ... Yet here was Ted, the handsomest man at the plant, asking for a DATE!”
There was a big wartime housing shortage, so The Province ran an ad for its classified section titled “Is Hitler sleeping at your house?”
“Few know where the arch-criminal rests his weary, wicked head,” it read. “But if you have a spare room that you are not renting to a war worker, you are, in effect, housing Hitler.”
There was also a shortage of materials. The Sun had an ad titled “Carry The SCRAP to Hitler!” that featured an illustration of various scrap materials being flung in the Fuhrer's eye. “There is an acute shortage of essential war materials, and every citizen faces the patriotic duty to salvage even the most trivial amount of these materials,” it stated. “You may not realize it, but ... There are BOMBS in YOUR basement!”
One of the most famous Second World War propaganda posters is “Loose lips sink ships,” an American phrase.
The British Columbia Distillery employed another phrase, “Let's Cut The Cackle,” in its own ad, which was titled “Fishing ... For What?”
It showed three workers fishing in what appears to be Burrard Inlet, and the warning “words that tell of the war goods manufactured in your plant — words that will cost the lives of your husband, son or brother ... that's the prize catch for the fisher of information, the enemy agent.”