Outline for Potato Campaign: Suggestions for Stimulating Immediately a Larger Use of Potatoes
An 8-page pamphlet from the United States Food Administration, printed by the Government Printing Office in 1918, telling local organizers how to raise potato eating in one short drive so that wheat could be saved for the war. It names twelve channels to work through, from newspapers, grocers and department stores to libraries, street railways, churches and the Four Minute Men, and sets up volunteer committees for exhibits, demonstrations, publicity and posters.
What it is
An 8-page pamphlet from the United States Food Administration, printed by the Government Printing Office in 1918, telling local organizers how to raise potato eating in one short drive so that wheat could be saved for the war. It names twelve channels to work through, from newspapers, grocers and department stores to libraries, street railways, churches and the Four Minute Men, and sets up volunteer committees for exhibits, demonstrations, publicity and posters. Each channel gets a concrete ask: grocers put potatoes and their price in the window, department stores compete for the best display, hotels print a potato line on every menu and serve potatoes instead of bread, teachers write recipes on the blackboard for children to copy and take home, ministers endorse the drive from the pulpit, club members pledge two potato meals a day, and theatres show slogans on the screen.
Why read it now
The pamphlet is a channel plan for one behaviour, and its logic holds: choose a single action (eat more potatoes, less bread), then give every place a person passes through one small job that points at it. This matches the modern case for mental and physical availability: be present where the choice is made and repeat the cue in many settings. Three details still work. It sends national copy to local editors and admits they will run it only when a local program stands behind it, which is how earned media works now. It moves the ask to the point of purchase: the window, the menu line, the price sign. It uses children to carry recipes into the home. What has dated: the patriotic appeal as the main reason, and pledges that record intent but were never checked against what people ate. The plan sets no measure of results at all. Use: for a launch or a local drive, list every channel your buyer touches in a week and write one specific ask for each.
Passages worth keeping
He will give it space very willingly if he knows that you are prepared to carry out the local campaign. That makes the publicity material live local news.
المحرر ينشر المادة الجاهزة برغبة حين يعرف أن وراءها حملة محلية فعلية، لأنها تصبح بذلك خبرًا محليًا حيًا.
Ask every grocer to feature potatoes in his show window, with signs urging patrons to buy potatoes and calling attention to the price.
اطلب من كل بقال أن يعرض البطاطس في واجهته مع لافتات تدعو إلى الشراء وتُبرز السعر، فالرسالة الأقرب إلى لحظة الشراء أقواها أثرًا.
The printing of these is an inconsiderable item, but the space in the cars is fairly expensive, varying according to the size of the city. No better means of reaching large groups of people can be found, however.
طباعة لوحات الترام رخيصة لكن مساحتها مكلفة بحسب حجم المدينة، ومع ذلك لا توجد وسيلة أفضل منها للوصول إلى جموع كبيرة من الناس.
The children should go home enthusiastic about the potato situation and arouse the interest of the rest of the family.
الهدف أن يعود الأطفال إلى البيت متحمسين للفكرة فينقلوا اهتمامهم إلى بقية الأسرة، فيصبحوا رسل الحملة داخل البيت.
Get members to pledge themselves to have two potato meals a day and to use potatoes so far as possible in place of bread.
اطلب من العضوات تعهدًا بوجبتين من البطاطس يوميًا وباستعمالها بدل الخبز قدر الإمكان، أي تحويل التأييد العام إلى التزام شخصي محدد.
What it teaches best
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