Axidunce cartoon: Damaged tools spell danger
Pen cartoon: a worker in a dunce cap labelled 'AXIDUNCE' swings a hammer whose handle has snapped, the head flying off, with a sign reading 'Damaged tools spell danger'. The invented label 'Axidunce' casts careless workers as helpers of the Axis by mockery, with a mild fear-appeal in the flying hammer head.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information, cartoon by Leo
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- 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 War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-441E (NAID 513904).
Text on the object
DAMAGED TOOLS SPELL DANGER AXIDUN[CE] (cap partly cut off by the worker's head) [imprint:] OWI-1981 [signature:] Leo FOR OWI
Cap lettering is partly hidden by the fold of the cap.
