Mrs America buys food with care
A twelve-panel cartoon sheet in black and white showing a housewife figure, 'Mrs America', planning, comparing prices, reading labels, watching scales and carrying her own packages. The everywoman character (plain folks) models each shopping habit, and the closing line ties thrift to the war effort (transfer).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of Price Administration, Consumer Division (from Consumers' Guide, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
- 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)
Office of Price Administration, Consumer Division (from Consumers' Guide, U.S. Department of Agriculture). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1376 (NAID 515035).
Text on the object
Mrs America buys food with care 1 Plans before she buys; pennies go farther 2 Shops around to learn where best buys are 3 Compares prices of foods with equal food values 4 Reads labels to know what's in food packages 5 Compares costs per ounce or pound of different sizes 6 Buys by weight, not by a dime or a dollar's worth 7 Buys by grade to get the quality she pays for 8 Watches scales to make sure how much she gets 9 Learns the seasons when different foods are cheapest 10 Checks her purchases before she leaves the store 11 Carries her packages to save delivery, tires, gasoline 12 Keeps up to date about the foods her family needs Wise buying helps win the war [in panel 2 shop signs:] BRIGGS / GRIGGS [in panel 6 signs:] 20c ALB. / 3 FOR 10c [in panel 7 cans:] A / B / C / SUPR / FANC / DELU [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942-O-456148 From Consumers' Guide, U. S. Department of Agriculture Distributed by Consumer Division, Office of Price Administration, Washington, D. C.
