Days off cost lives
Long yellow streamer with a cartoon winged bug with a grimacing face, a blue disc reading 'Don't let the Absenteeism Bug get you', and the headline 'Days off cost lives' in large blue letters. The tell: absence from work is cast as a pest and tied directly to deaths, with no figures given.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Production Board, War Production Drive Headquarters
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Labor
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
War Production Board. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-626 (NAID 514104).
Text on the object
DON'T LET THE Absenteeism Bug GET YOU DAYS OFF COST LIVES [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943-O-[illegible] WPB Streamer No. S-4. For extra copies address- WAR PRODUCTION DRIVE HEADQUARTERS War Production Board, Washington, D. C.
