Keep Calm and Carry On
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This document discusses the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster from World War 2 and its resurgence in popularity. It provides background on how the British government used propaganda posters during WW2 to encourage national unity and service. It then examines how the "Keep Calm" poster has been rediscovered and commercialized in the 21st century, appearing on many products. The document explores what this says about British and national identity both during WW2 and today.
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Keep Calm and Carry On
- 1. Keep Calm and Carry On: A Re-Sounding Message Dr Bex Lewis The Second World War, Popular Culture and Cultural Memory 13 th July 2011 http://ww2poster.co.uk
- 3. Simon Edge, ‘Sign of the Times’, Daily Express , Thursday March 19, 2009, p36
- 12. Britishness…
- 13. What can you buy? https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150159936105685.293432.180104880684
- 16. IWM
- 17. IWM (Postcards for sale)
- 18. The poster that started it all…
- 20. Celebrity
- 33. Thank you for your time… QUESTIONS?
Editor's Notes
- ABSTRACT: In 2000 a poster was ‘discovered’ in the bottom of a box of books, bought at auction by a book-seller in Alnwick. The poster, designed by the Ministry of Information (MOI) in 1939, was intended to be posted in the event of a major crisis, such as invasion. It was (probably) distributed around the country in the same way that other posters were – to post offices, train stations, etc. Two other posters in the series “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring Us Victory” and “Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with all your Might” were posted widely. But as Britain was never invaded, “Keep Calm and Carry On” was never used. Until now…! The poster has had a resurgence, particularly since November 2008, when the credit crunch really hit, with many using it as a mantra to get through their daily lives. Catching the mood of the nation it has been widely distributed, copied onto mugs, T shirts and student walls, and the message subverted in multiple ways. The MOI, officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’. Their messages, which tapped into a sense of what it was to be British during the war, have continued to sell as items of nostalgia, and come to the forefront again during the current financial crisis. This paper considers recent uses, including ‘Make do and Mend’ in times of austerity, ‘Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases’ for Swine Flu, and, most recently, the Green Party’s environmental ‘New Home Front’ competition, and what that indicates with regards to an underlying sense of ‘Britishness’. Immediately see here a range of images – so where did this phenomenon come from?!
- Here’s the commonly cited origins of the poster, that it was “discovered” in 2001 in the box in a bookshop in Alnwick, and certainly believe that this is when the poster received it’s fame… [That process began with a fluke: in 2000, Stuart and Mary Manley, owners of a shop called Barter Books in north England, found one of the original posters folded up in the bottom of a box of old books and framed it. Customers liked it, and eventually the Manleys decided to sell reproductions. “Part of it is that it does have this sort of intrinsic British feel about it,” Mary Manley says, adding that the poster evokes a “nostalgia for a certain British character, an outlook.” ] NYT
- This was what alerted me to the face that this story had got so huge… a journalist left a message that he wanted to run the story… then ran it from my thesis… “ For many the wartime slogans, such as Dig for Victory, Careless Talk Costs Lives, and Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases, have never been forgotten. Such slogans have been passed on as a part of our common heritage,” says Dr Rebecca Lewis, a historian who has made a study of the subject. “Posters that were not published or were withdrawn also make for interesting study, particularly for reasons as to why they were rejected,” she adds. “However, there do not seem to be many examples of these, although whether this is because records of unsuccessful designs were not kept or because there were not many was not established.”
- This got me thinking… I had materials from my thesis on a website, but now we were into the age of the blog, so this was something I could blog about/add to the conversation on … I’m a historian of communication, I can join in this debate… so I started blogging, and started to get traffic quite quickly … this was March/April 2009…
- I had written in all 3 extensive pieces of work about the Your Courage poster, The poster was third in a series of three. The previous two posters from the series, " Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" (800,000 printed) and "Freedom is in Peril" (400,000 printed) were issued and used across the country for motivational purposes, as the Ministry of Information assumed that the events of the first weeks of the war would demoralise the population. Planning for the posters started in April 1939; by June designs were prepared, and by August 1939, they were on their way to the printers, to be placed up within 24 hours of the outbreak of war. The posters were designed to have a uniform device, be a design associated with the Ministry of Information, and have a unique and recognisable lettering, with a message from the King to his people. The slogans were created by civil servants, with Waterfield coming up with "Your Courage" as "a rallying war-cry that will bring out the best in everyone of us and put us in an offensive mood at once". These particular posters were designed as "a statement of the duty of the individual citizen", un-pictorial, to be accompanied by more colloquial designs. The "Your Courage" poster was much more famous during the war, as it was the first to go up, very large, and was the first of the Ministry of Information's posters. [4] The press, fearful of censorship, created a backlash, and thus a lot of material related to these posters has been kept by archives . (Wikipedia, my contribution). Your Courage – people couldn’t remember the slogan, even after walking past multiple times… (criticism of the other) … these were the 2 that appeared, and have been talked about extensively… now replaced by KCCO
- But even by the time I’d wised up to it (I was job-hunting…!) “everyone knew everything” Wikipedia sharing information … took 4 goes to get my information on there, and had to dive around and find some new information which wasn’t yet in the public sphere… sends some of the most traffic to my site, as people are so interested, and Wikipedia of course fount of all information…
- All material for the Home Front was produced by the Ministry of Information, in planning from 1935, but not formed until war officially declared. In the First World War, propaganda material had been produced by a diverse group of bodies, but the formation of a Ministry of Information in 1918, and growing professionalism in the advertising and PR industries in the inter-war era, ensured that this was deemed the right path for the Second World War, and it’s remit was to Tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’. As this poster indicates, it didn’t have as much power as anticipated, with other departments continuing to produce their own material…. In June 1940, a response collected by Mass Observation (an innovative anthropological survey company formed in 1938) indicated: FR193: If our leaders cannot control and obtain an efficient reply for rations, how can they control or obtain a satisfactory response in times of death and misery, a response of the heart and nerves? Yet this more ephemeral morale response is the most important of all. People’s readiness to volunteer or co-operate, evacuate or spend something extra on sand, is only a small facet of their whole mental attitude to the war and its worthwhileness. Everything that happens on the Home Front is an indication of the state of morale, and it is impossible to separate the problem [p11] of morale from problems of A.R.P. efficiency or munitions production, anti-waste or spreading rumour. No attempt to deal with these things piecemeal in an ad hoc way, can possibly deal with the problems for long. Only a total administrative and executive attitude to morale can make the Home Front worth 100%. And only a 100% Home Front can successfully weather the coming impacts of total war.
- We were in total war… the government was looking for ‘active’ citizenship, self-regulation, democratic, not driven by the overt force behind the totalitarain states… In the 1930s Aldous Huxley recognised that propaganda ‘canalises an already existing stream’; it is only effective on those already in tune with the ideas expressed. Propaganda encourages its audience further along the direction that they are already moving, and reinforces partly formed ideas…
- What DOES make ‘people love and dies for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name’. Benedict Anderson offered the notion of ‘imagined communities’. Anderson indicated that citizens are likely to work together in ‘imagined communities’, “ imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, of even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.” Anderson examines how tradition is constructed, invented and appropriated, often through symbolism based on false tradition. So what about these posters, designed for a British audience in 1939?
- What still resonates? Is this about 1939? No, the poster was never used then – kept for Blitz, by time Blitz arrived, wasn’t used – probably because recognised need for ‘The People’s War’ – not about the Monarchy ‘ruling’… It’s very much about the 21 st Century and the time of crisis we are in … the poster was ‘discovered’ in 2001, but really took off towards the end of 2008 – around the time I returned from global travels … realising that I’d returned, with no job, no savings, to a time of recession… the slogan definitely resonated with me…
- As a slight side step… it’s interesting to note that the slogan made a reappearance at the Royal Wedding earlier this year… a slogan that had been intended to appeal to those who ‘valued’ Royalty is subverted for those who had no care for the wedding but were grateful for a free day off…
- Back to Keep Calm and Carry On… “ It helped enhance the feeling of stoicism then, but is speaking to a new generation suffering from stress and anxiety in a fast- paced world enduring an economic crisis, job uncertainty and environmental problems.” http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/make_do_and_mend_message_for_21st_century_1_2362183 Who recognises these wellies? Noticeably, Cath Kidston (and similar stores), with her English Country house style has been incredibly successful… rose-tinted as it may be… Is nostalgia a retreat to the past in the face of current difficulties – the recession…? Chase and Shaw defined three prerequisites for the presence of nostalgia in a society: a linear and secular view of time and history (as in Western societies); a sense that the present is deficient; and the presence of items from the past … those are all here… [http://ww2poster.co.uk/2000/05/public-history-now/]
- a sense that the present is deficient; and the presence of items from the past We know that we’re in a recession, times are hard for many (at least compared to recent years…) These items appeared at the right time… and look at the variety of stuff that you can buy….
- Some of the variations on the slogan… the subversions, the humour, the inspiration that people are drawing into this material…
- This diagram is intended to show the development of the ‘internet meme’ … some interesting topics – the 2 that are quoted most often are ‘Get Excited and Make Things’ (a response by Matt Jones - to what was seen as British Fatalism) and ‘Panic and Freak Out’…
- If you visit the Imperial War Museum, you find the 3 posters together (in a way they wouldn’t have been at the time), completely de-contextualised … no mention that KCCO was not used – do they assume that we all know (they get a lot of international visitors)… or…
- Here’s the multitude of postcards you can purchase at the IWM … and this is where it all started for me … a postcard from IWM … somewhere in here will be ‘Your Country Needs You’ which is the one most people used to mention to me … now it’s KCCO! It wasn’t that postcard…
- But this poster… still on display earlier this year… caught my eye, made me wonder if it would have attracted the attention of others… Without this first interest, there’d be no research, no backstory… would it have made a difference? We’ll have a quick look at some of the posters that have been of interest in recent years, and there’s a relevant message/backstory in all, but first, back to KCCO and it’s continued growth…
- This paper given at an e-learning conference, to encourage academics to be prepared for remote teaching … as those in the war were to be prepared for invasion, got a lot of people talking about the title of the talk, and how they knew of the poster….
- … as number of celebrity wearers, from all sides of the spectrum, gave celeb clout to the slogan. Govt ministers tended not to be photographed with theirs, but it was rumoured that Gordon Brown had it in his office, and Ben Bradshaw, Minister for Culture & Sport, definitely did!
- The Stereophonics had seen the poster, thought it was ‘a good piece of advice’ … summing up their life – named their album after it, and that brought even more attention… “ What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? There’s a poster that somebody bought the other day which said “keep calm and carry on”. That’s a bit of good advice, especially for us. That sums up our life.”
- The Americans quickly picked up on the phenomenon, and started to produce their own designs – this one was seen in a window in San Francisco…. All that symbolism of British stiff upper lip and keeping calm in a crisis … it makes sense to those in the States?! The story was picked up by the New York Times where I noted that even those attracted to the poster’s past may be more revisionist than they realize. “People talk about it — Americans in particular I’m afraid — being the poster that kept the British going through the war” … whatever the “truth”, I gained over 12,000 visitors to the site per month for 6 months + after that story ran…
- If you fancy a go yourself, try this site!
- That’s what Linda Baker did for ‘Inside Out North East’ (a story claimed by the North East because of where the poster was ‘found’), some terrible slogan that I’ve already forgotten, but we had a long conversation about it in the middle of the Imperial War Museum… So you see we’re back in the Imperial War Museum again… our story keeps returning there, so let’s continue with our look as a few more posters that can be found there but have gained a new resonance in the last few years…
- We’ve grown used to a consumerist throw-away society, but that nostalgic fear, alongside environmental concerns have raised the cause of ‘make do and mend’ …. Advertiser’s Weekly, 4th April 1944, p.154 notes… W.S.Crawford, Ltd invented the figure in order to humanise the ‘make-do-and-mend’ campaign. Made first appearance in the press on May 15, and will feature in forthcoming displays and posters. “Mrs Sew-and-Sew is a pleasant figure, rather like a ventriloquist’s dummy, with a cherubic smile. A wooden figure of her will be placed at the door of advice centres, inviting people to come in, and she will also appear in window displays and exhibitions. Copy for the first advert describes her as a ‘designing woman’. The campaign will then invite women to identify themselves with her domestic habits, and to follow her example in overcoming household difficulties.”
- As part of their ‘Top Tips for Tough Times’ (http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.24028), the IWM resurrected Mrs SewandSew in 2009 … The blog said: Hello m’ dears! Mrs Sew&Sew here, reporting from the home front in 1943! The nice people at the Imperial War Museum (yes, it’s even around in our day) have given me a special typewriter, so I can send you telegrams from here. Don’t worry, we’ve set it up so your replies get sent through to me as well, so feel free to have a chat!…. I’ve heard there’s some kind of problem with the banks in 2009, so maybe some of these ideas will come in handy there too. Do let me know if you have any great ideas I can pass onto my neighbours. Or even if they’re not relevant in my time, let me know anyway, and I’ll pass them back to all the lovely people in your time.”
- In the twenties and thirties Bateman made his name through The Tatler, The Sketch and The Bystander, specialising in the depiction of angry outrage caused by anti-social or unthinking behaviour: ‘His cartoons, typified in The Man Who… series, depict with frenzied exaggeration the uproar caused by social bloomers.’ That character appeared in this campaign… gentle use of humour works on the basis that those in the culture viewing this will find a visual shorthand which makes the images meaningful… This slogan from a 1942 British government poster was aimed at reducing absenteeism from serious war work, but it caught on, and encouraged more hygienic habits in the population as a whole.
- Unfortunately the character doesn’t appear here – more serious, but was even debate in 1940s as to whether it was appropriate to be ‘funny’ about such serious subjects… “ No surprise then, to find it revived to combat the latest threats from various kinds of flu and the norovirus with added instructions about binning tissues, then washing hands thoroughly.” With regular leisure travel not surprising to see it as a growing ‘problem’.
- These are some of the most famous posters from the war, still famous, still sell, where Fougasse accurately illustrated ‘human nature’, enabling ‘every viewer to identify with the characters’ … in places/situations familiar to the British public…
- This was reused a couple of years ago in an attempt to deal with the new ‘moral menace’ of using the mobile whilst driving… Still works?!
- So, to finish, to note a competition still ongoing… specifically looking for a re-imagining of wartime slogans to help promote the message/changing behaviour (as we say in blogging – looking for a ‘call to action’, not just a ‘that’s interesting’ …) … regarding climate change… up for it?
- So, I think we can see that although KCCO is the biggest, the general tone of nostalgia has allowed a re-imagining of many wartime poster designs. Thanks for listening… Questions?