Increasingly, “Keep calm” was omnipresent, on posters, the internet, even merchandise. While the “Keep Calm” poster clearly had not fared so well with wartime audiences, it seemed to tick all the boxes with a millennial audience. After their finder displayed them in their local shop, the poster went on a rapid career. It was only in 2001, by coincidence, that remaining copies of the poster were discovered at the bottom of a box of second hand books in Northumbria. The wartime career of the “Keep Calm” poster was over, it was disposed of as waste paper, and assumingly, in many cases, recycled due to wartime shortage of paper. The reader should not only be informed and obey, but be convinced, or at least remember it and tell friends about it. The new campaigns, whether engaging with air raids, blackouts or food shortages, were now designed to attract attention, to persuade, to be catchy. Source: IWM Art.IWM PST 0142 Art.IWM PST 13907 The “Careless talk costs lives” campaign (1942), purposed to point out the importance of secrecy and the danger of spies (which was linked to an almost obsessive fear of infiltration and “fifth columns” during the early war years) employed photographs, cartoons and wit to address the national audience. They were designed to be more active, more modern, and more eye catching. Instead, the Ministry of Information introduced a series of campaigns representing a rapid modernisation of graphic design and texting, leaning on advertisement techniques rather than on traditional ways of a government communicating to the people. Surveys had found an overwhelming lack of success of its two predecessor, which were interpreted as too abstract and rather patronising: The Crown was seen to impose authority, the simple messages, the ordering tone was read as out of touch with a modern society, talking to a subject rather than to citizens. Eventually, however, the campaign was discontinued and the “Keep Calm” poster was never used. The third one (“Keep Calm and Carry On”) was planned to be used as a last push to morale, in case of a seriously aggravated situation, as for example the immediate threat of a German invasion. Defend it with all your might.” “Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory”). Two of the three designed posters were published across the country in 19 (“Freedom is at peril.

Their purpose was to boost morale amongst the British population. Source: IWM Art.IWM PST 14814, IWM Art.IWM PST 14789, IWM Art.IWM PST 14817 One line of posters followed a corporate design: All posters were red and white (although today sometimes cited with different colours), with simple graphics and messages. Its message has been repurposed in hundreds of ways, while always seemingly building up on a certain spirit of Britishness, resilience, stubbornness and self-confidence, based on today’s understanding of a mythological British war experience during the Blitz.ĭuring the years before the outbreak of the war, the Ministry of Information had designed a selection of posters to be published in case of international conflict and German aggression. Its design is iconic and yet simple and approachable. At the same time it is quoted and referenced in pop culture and social media in various ways and memes – asking the reader to keep calm and drink tea, eat muffins, do yoga, click edit, or the like. At the same time, it was easily, and probably globally recognisable as a variant of the red widely-known British “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster (right), which came to embody a British wartime spirit of resilience. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to encourage hygiene in order to avoid the spread of Covid-19. The poster was issued in early 2020 by the U.S. For the last couple of months, we have been using the blue “Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands” poster (left) for our blog series on the links between war historiography and understanding how we deal with the Coronavirus.

Keep calm and carry on history