---
title: Stay on the job! Processed food is ammunition
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stay-on-the-job-processed-food-is-ammunition-1945/
description: Blue poster showing tall, receding columns of stacked cans labelled PEAS, TOMATOES and PEACHES, with a yellow brush-stroke 'Stay on the job!' over them
section: Collection
---

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3. Stay on the job! Processed food is ammunition

[![Stay on the job! Processed food is ammunition, 1945 US poster: Blue poster showing tall, receding columns of stacked cans](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stay-on-the-job-processed-food-is-ammunition-1945.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stay-on-the-job-processed-food-is-ammunition-1945.jpg)

# Stay on the job! Processed food is ammunition

Blue poster showing tall, receding columns of stacked cans labelled PEAS, TOMATOES and PEACHES, with a yellow brush-stroke 'Stay on the job!' over them and 'Processed food is ammunition' on a red band. The tell is transfer: the military word 'ammunition' and the massed rows lend a munitions meaning to cannery work.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
PEAS
TOM[ATOES]
PEACHES
CA[...]
STAY ON
THE JOB!
PROCESSED FOOD
IS AMMUNITION
WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1945—O-639197]
```

Several can labels are cut off by overlapping cans or the sheet edge; only the visible letters are given.

[← Something money can't buy... Your campaign ribbons](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/something-money-cant-buy-campaign-ribbons-1945/) [The Little Jap Is a Big Job! (U.S. Army Official Poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-little-jap-is-a-big-job-army-1945/)

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- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
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- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)