What famous slogan first appeared on World War I recruiting posters?

The famous World War I recruiting slogan was “I Want You.” The full wording on the best-known U.S. Army poster was “I Want YOU for U.S. Army,” with Uncle Sam pointing directly at the viewer.

Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg created the image. It was adapted from a 1914 British recruiting poster featuring Lord Kitchener, and Flagg also used his own face as a model for Uncle Sam. The image first appeared in 1916, before the United States entered the war, and became an official Army recruiting poster in 1917.

The poster was extraordinarily successful: more than four million copies were printed during World War I. Its direct second-person wording made enlistment feel like a personal duty rather than a general patriotic appeal. The phrase is often shortened to “Uncle Sam Wants You,” but “I Want You” is the wording printed on the poster. The same design was revived during World War II, helping turn the image into one of the most recognizable pieces of American propaganda.