I Want You for the Navy

Why it works

Howard Chandler Christy took the most imitated line in recruiting and changed who was saying it. In this 1917 Navy poster, "I want you" comes not from a stern Lord Kitchener or Uncle Sam but from a "Christy Girl", the coquettish young woman the illustrator had invented, here in a Navy uniform with her hands in her pockets and a direct, knowing gaze. The University of Michigan Museum of Art traces the borrowing from Alfred Leete's Kitchener and James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam and points out that Christy's substitution gives the caption a double meaning, turning a command into an invitation. The small print adds a practical incentive: promotion for anyone enlisting. It is studied as an early, unapologetic use of sex appeal to sell military service to young men, and as a rival recruiter remixing a famous slogan instead of inventing one. Copies are held by the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.