Mrs America buys clothes with care
Twelve-panel cartoon sheet showing a stylised housewife shopping for clothes, each panel captioned with a rule such as comparing prices, reading labels and buying only what she needs. Technique: plain-folks, an everyday 'Mrs America' as model, and transfer in the closing line that wise buying helps win the war.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (Consumers' Guide); distributed by Office of Price Administration, Consumer Division
- 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, Economy and finance
- 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)
U.S. Department of Agriculture. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1375 (NAID 515034).
Text on the object
Mrs America buys clothes with care 1 Plans before she buys; makes over what she can 2 Shops around to learn where best buys are 3 Knows the size before she buys, makes sure of a good fit 4 Makes sure she knows what it is made of. Reads labels 5 Finds out whether it will shrink or stretch 6 Asks for information about wear and care 7 Compares prices with quality to get her money's worth 8 Buys only what she needs now. She doesn't hoard 9 Buys a dress that will stay in style and that has many uses 10 Makes sure in the store; does not have to exchange goods 11 Carries home small purchases and avoids delivery. Saves tires and gas 12 Keeps up to date about civilian goods in war time Wise buying helps win the war [in-panel text: Smart Shoppe; Style S; EXCHAN; CLOTHES; PRIORITIES] [imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-456149] From Consumers' Guide, U. S. Department of Agriculture Distributed by Consumer Division, Office of Price Administration, Washington, D. C.
