---
title: Stay on the job
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stay-on-the-job-uncle-sam-1941/
description: Uncle Sam in a star-banded top hat points a finger straight at the viewer with a stern look, above a red and blue banner reading 'Stay on the job'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Stay on the job

[![Stay on the job, 1941 US poster: Uncle Sam in a star-banded top hat points a finger straight at the viewer with a stern look](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stay-on-the-job-uncle-sam-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/stay-on-the-job-uncle-sam-1941.jpg)

# Stay on the job

Uncle Sam in a star-banded top hat points a finger straight at the viewer with a stern look, above a red and blue banner reading 'Stay on the job'. The national personification stands in for the issuer and speaks to each worker directly; the technique is a transfer of the nation's authority onto an ordinary workplace instruction.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
STAY ON THE JOB
[signature: James Montgomery Flagg]
[imprint: From Painting by James Montgomery Flagg, © Life - Judge - Leslie Reference Library]
```

[← The Enemy Shall Never Escape Our Wrath (reproduced from a Soviet war poster by Russian War Relief, Inc.)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/soviet-the-enemy-shall-never-escape-our-wrath-russian-war-relief-1941/) [Steps in British Political Development →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/steps-in-british-political-development-uk-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [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)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [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)