Content note: Cartoon of a pig wearing a German officer's cap and Iron Cross, with a toothbrush moustache, caricaturing the enemy leader. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Pal! Food is ammunition. Don't waste it
Cartoon: a pig in a German officer's cap and an Iron Cross, with a toothbrush moustache, grins at a startled soldier who holds up a hand over a plate of wasted food, a tipped glass and a bitten apple, under 'Pal!'. The tell is the pig-as-enemy figure and a shell-case roundel reading 'Food is ammunition', which equates leftover food with a military supply.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Government (food conservation campaign)
- 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. Government. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1497 (NAID 515162).
Text on the object
PAL ! FOOD IS AMMUNITION ★ DON'T WASTE IT ★ [imprint, bottom: ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—534432]
