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
- Date
- 1945
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- War Manpower Commission
- 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, 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)
War Manpower Commission. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1803 (NAID 515482).
Text on the object
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.
