---
title: Absence makes the war last longer
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/absence-makes-the-war-last-longer-1943/
description: Cartoon of a man asleep in bed with an alarm clock beside him, over the headline 'Absence makes the war last longer' and the order 'Stay on the job!'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Absence makes the war last longer

[![Absence makes the war last longer, 1943 US poster: Cartoon of a man asleep in bed with an alarm clock beside him, over](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/absence-makes-the-war-last-longer-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/absence-makes-the-war-last-longer-1943.jpg)

# Absence makes the war last longer

Cartoon of a man asleep in bed with an alarm clock beside him, over the headline 'Absence makes the war last longer' and the order 'Stay on the job!'. It links one worker's absence to a longer war, a consequence appeal aimed at war-plant workers; the technique is mild.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ABSENCE
makes the war
last longer
YOUR PRODUCTION COMMITTEE SAYS:
Stay on the job!
[signature: illegible]
[imprint:] BULLETIN BOARD PLACARD NO. 25
[imprint:] U.S. Government Printing Office : 1943-O-509094
```

[← Above and beyond the call of duty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty-dorie-miller-1943/) [Admiral Ernest J. King says →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/admiral-king-payroll-savings-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)