---
title: 'Axidunce cartoon: Use care in placing ladders'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/axidunce-use-care-placing-ladders-1941/
description: 'Pen cartoon: a dazed worker in a dunce cap labelled ''AXIDUNCE'', stars circling his head, has fallen through a broken ladder.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Axidunce cartoon: Use care in placing ladders

[![Axidunce cartoon: Use care in placing ladders, 1941 US poster: Pen cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/axidunce-use-care-placing-ladders-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/axidunce-use-care-placing-ladders-1941.jpg)

# Axidunce cartoon: Use care in placing ladders

Pen cartoon: a dazed worker in a dunce cap labelled 'AXIDUNCE', stars circling his head, has fallen through a broken ladder, beside a sign 'Use care in placing ladders'. The invented label 'Axidunce' casts careless workers as helpers of the Axis by mockery.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

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

```
USE CARE
IN
PLACING
LADDERS
AXIDUNC[E]
[imprint:] OWI-1982
[signature:] Leo FOR OWI
```

[← U.S. Industry Casualty List](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/axidunce-us-industry-casualty-list-owi/) [Axidunce cartoon: Walk do not run up and down →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/axidunce-walk-do-not-run-owi/)

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- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
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