---
title: I was careless! 'it ALL depends on ME'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-was-careless-it-all-depends-on-me-1941/
description: 'Fire-prevention style poster: a photograph of a large building burning at night, silhouetted firefighters in front.'
section: Collection
---

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3. I was careless! 'it ALL depends on ME'

[![I was careless! 'it ALL depends on ME', 1941 US poster: Fire-prevention style poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/i-was-careless-it-all-depends-on-me-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/i-was-careless-it-all-depends-on-me-1941.jpg)

# I was careless! 'it ALL depends on ME'

Fire-prevention style poster: a photograph of a large building burning at night, silhouetted firefighters in front, with red text 'I was careless!' on the left and 'it ALL depends on ME' on the right. The speaker takes the blame for the blaze in the first person, a fear-appeal built on a disaster image.

## 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

```
I
was
careless!
"it ALL
depends on
ME"
[imprint:] © Illinois Photo - Gravure Co.
International News Service
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
```

[← I want to preach a sermon...](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-want-to-preach-a-sermon-us-rubber-1941/) [Ideas will help beat the promise - let's have yours! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ideas-will-help-beat-the-promise-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)