U.S. Treasury Department ads
68 ads and videos in the library are from U.S. Treasury Department.
Most common in these ads
Goals
- Move people to act for a cause 67 ads and videos
- Keep customers 1 ad or video
Industries
- Government and public service 66 ads and videos
- Banking, finance and insurance 2 ads and videos
Patterns
- War-bond ask 65 ads and videos
- Donor guilt appeal 2 ads and videos
- Civilian war-duty equate 1 ad or video
The ads
Second Liberty Loan bond poster, 1917: "Our daddy is fighting"
Two small children tell the reader their daddy is fighting at the front for You, so buying a bond is how the reader backs him up.
Liberty bond poster: "Buy a Liberty bond lest I perish"
The Statue of Liberty herself points at the reader and warns that unless YOU buy a bond, she will perish.
Third Liberty Loan town honor roll poster
The town competes for a Treasury honor flag, and every resident who buys a bond is named on the public roll that earns it.
"Honor roll" workplace contribution poster
Buying a bond puts your name on a public list in your own workplace, under a line that calls every name on it patriotic.
War bonds poster: "85 Million Americans Hold War Bonds"
Holding War Bonds is what 85 million Americans already do, and the fist of $100 bonds raised like Liberty's torch makes keeping them a patriotic stand.
"Combat America" Technicolor film poster for extra war bonds
A Technicolor war film made by Major Clark Gable, shown in flying gear, lends its star pull and his service to an ask for extra bonds.
Victory Liberty Loan poster: "Americans All"
An honor roll of surnames from every origin, Du Bois to Gonzales, declares all of them American, so the loan belongs to every community equally.
War bond poster: "And They Thought We Couldn't Fight"
The enemy doubted Americans could fight; a grinning, bandaged soldier carrying German helmets as trophies answers them, and the Victory Liberty Loan settles the bill for that win.
Liberty Bonds poster: "Beat Back the Hun"
A German soldier with bloodied hands and bayonet peers over the horizon across the ocean, and Liberty Bonds are what keeps him on the far side.
Liberty Bond poster: "Before Sunset To-day"
The flag's stripes melt into a sunset sky behind the Statue of Liberty, so the deadline 'Before Sunset TO-DAY' is painted into the picture itself.
Second Liberty Loan poster: "Help Win the War"
The President has already chosen to conquer rather than submit, so buying a bond is how each citizen joins the choice the nation made.
War bonds comic poster: "Buy Bonds the G.I. Way"
A soldier who bought a $7.50 G.I. bond every month wins Moonbeam's yes over the broke, crap-shooting soldiers who bought none.
Fourth Liberty Loan poster: "Clear the Way"
A gun crew's shout, 'CLEAR THE WAY', becomes the reader's order too: flag-draped Liberty points sailors' naval gun forward, and buying bonds is the way onto that deck.
Walter Whitehead Liberty Bonds poster, 1918
A wounded soldier still advancing shouts 'Come On' to the people at home, whose part is to buy more bonds than they already hold.
War bonds poster: "Don't Let That Shadow Touch Them"
The shadow of a swastika already stretches across the lawn where three children play; buying War Bonds keeps it from touching them.
War bonds poster: "For a Secure Future"
The farmer holds $100 War Bonds in one hand and a tractor in the other: the bonds he buys turn into the tractor, the truck, the farm and graduations later.
Victory Liberty Loan poster: "For Home and Country"
The soldier is already home with his wife and son, and the Victory Liberty Loan is framed as paying for that homecoming.
Fourth Liberty Loan poster: "For Victory, Buy More Bonds"
Coming after three earlier loans, the poster asks for MORE, carried by a charging Liberty with sword, shield and eagle over a column of marching troops.
Third Liberty Loan poster: "Good Bye, Dad, I'm Off to Fight"
A son leaving for the war hands his father the home-front job in one sentence: the son fights, the father buys bonds.
Third Liberty Loan poster: "Halt the Hun"
Buying a bond is the grip that stops the enemy one step before he reaches a mother and her child.
Liberty Loan poster: "Have You Bought Your Bond?"
Hung where bonds are sold, the poster asks one question, 'Have you bought YOUR BOND?', and the line beneath tells the reader the answer can be given right here.
War bond poster for Mother's Day, 1942
A mother's sons are serving the country and serving us, so a bond bought on Mother's Day is the gift owed to her.
Liberty Bonds poster: "Hun or Home?"
'HUN OR HOME?' reduces the war to one choice, shown as a young mother clutching her baby while a spiked-helmet soldier crouches over a body beside her.
Liberty Bond poster: "If You Can't Enlist, Invest"
The rhyme 'IF YOU CAN'T ENLIST- INVEST' gives everyone who cannot fight a way to serve: their dollars become the sword America swings at War, Starvation and Death.
War Savings Stamps poster: "Joan of Arc Saved France"
Joan of Arc saved France, and the women of America can save their country too, with War Savings Stamps as their sword.
War bonds poster: "Keep These Hands Off"
Two clawed shadow hands, one marked with a swastika and one with the rising sun, reach for a mother and her baby; the new Victory Bonds keep them off.
US Treasury War Savings Stamps poster: "Keep Him Free"
The nation is one bald eagle ringed by warplanes, and buying War Savings Stamps is what keeps him free.
War bonds poster: "Keep This Bonded"
A Nazi brute sits caged behind bars spelled BUY WAR BONDS and chained by a belt of 10% discs: every bond bought keeps him locked in.
War bonds poster: "Keep This Horror From Your Home"
A racist caricature of a Japanese soldier grips a terrified woman's face; putting 10% into War Bonds is what keeps that scene out of your home.
War bonds poster: "Keep Us Flying"
The airman himself makes the ask, keep us flying, so buying War Bonds is what keeps a pilot like him in the air.
Liberty Bonds poster: "Must Children Die and Mothers Plead in Vain?"
A mother, seen from behind with children clinging to her, stretches her arm up in appeal, and the headline asks the viewer whether that plea will be in vain.
"My Soldier" poster with a child's bedtime prayer
A child's familiar bedtime prayer, extended to ask God to bring a soldier brother home from France, makes buying Third Liberty Loan bonds part of that prayer.
Third Liberty Loan poster: "My Daddy Bought Me a Bond. Did Yours?"
A bond is a gift a father buys his child, and a smiling girl hugging hers asks every other family whether their father did the same.
Third Liberty Loan poster: "Over the Top for You"
The soldier charging out of the trench with the flag is doing it for the reader personally, so the least the reader owes back is a bond.
Liberty Bonds poster: "Provide the Sinews of War"
The old phrase for money, 'the sinews of war', sits under a drawing of a battleship in a navy yard among cranes and planes, showing what bond money turns into.
Second Liberty Loan bond poster: Ring It Again, 1917
The cracked Liberty Bell and 'Ring it again' cast the Second Liberty Loan as a repeat of the founding moment, and the bond pays back: 'Help Your Country and Yourself.'
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