“Serve America Now” — Advertising Bus Travel in the US during the Second World War

Commercial self‐interest and patriotism came together in various parts of the American business scene during the Second World War. The history of the pressures on advertisers from Government and from the physical shortages which warfare entailed had a sharp focus in the history of public transport, especially over long distances. Examples from the advertising of bus companies illustrate how the operating companies coped with the demands on the system for travel and, at the same time, sought to keep public support for travel by bus in the economically restrictive circumstances of the time.