---
title: 'Warning: Careless Talk May Help the Enemy. Be on Your Guard'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-warning-careless-talk-may-help-the-enemy-1941/
description: 'A text-only sheet in nested black and red frames lists seven subjects not to discuss: ship movements, defence plans, munitions factories, troop movements.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Warning: Careless Talk May Help the Enemy. Be on Your Guard

[![Warning: Careless Talk May Help the Enemy. Be on Your Guard, 1941 Canada poster: A text-only sheet in nested black and red](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-warning-careless-talk-may-help-the-enemy-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-warning-careless-talk-may-help-the-enemy-1941.jpg)

# Warning: Careless Talk May Help the Enemy. Be on Your Guard

A text-only sheet in nested black and red frames lists seven subjects not to discuss: ship movements, defence plans, munitions factories, troop movements, harbour facilities, aircraft production and supply stores. The red warning that talk 'may help the enemy' sets an unseen threat against ordinary conversation (fear-appeal).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
WARNING
CARELESS TALK
MAY HELP THE ENEMY

DO NOT DISCUSS
SHIP MOVEMENTS
DEFENCE PLANS
MUNITIONS FACTORIES
TROOP MOVEMENTS
HARBOUR FACILITIES
AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
SUPPLY STORES

BE ON YOUR GUARD

Issued by the Director of Public Information, Ottawa
By authority of Hon. J. T. Thorson, Minister of National War Services
```

[← -- To Victory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-to-victory-lion-and-beaver-1941/) [Čuvaj se partizana! Čuvaj se tifusa! (Beware of the Partisan! Beware of Typhus!), Independent State of Croatia →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuvaj-se-partizana-tifus-ndh-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)