You’ve all seen the posters— “Keep Calm and Carry On” and all the variations of it. This phrase is everywhere, so how could anyone not see it? It’s written on notebooks, mugs, pillows and pretty much anything else you can think of. Most likely you’ve seen some sort of modification of it, too. And not only have you seen it, you probably own something with the phrase on it as well. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not so original either. Whether it’s the standard “Keep Calm and Carry On” or any one of the ridiculous parodies, we can’t escape them. “Keep Calm and Eat Cupcakes.” “Keep Calm and Rock On.” “Now Panic and Freak Out!” You name it, they have it. And if they don’t have it, there’s tons of websites to create your own. Some of them are completely random, but each one has the signature font and small picture on top (usually with the original crown, but some get really creative a put a classy little picture of a cupcake or a shotglass…) We’re getting out of control with it. But don’t feel bad, we’re not the only ones under this spell. A countless number of musicians have been influenced by this simple little catchphrase as well.
I’m sure you’ve all heard “Carry On” by Fun. This song is known to be about perseverance in hard times, which is exactly what this phrase is all about. But Fun. is not the first, the last, or the only band to use this cliché. Welsh rock band, Stereophonics, have an album titled “Keep Calm and Carry On” which was released in November 2009. More recently, in 2012 South Jordan also released an album with this title. And I can assure you, there’s even more. John Nolan, Neal Peterson, Luke Vibert, Zach Hill, Most Thieves, Supreme Court, Red Hands, Riley, Lungs, Illiminatus, and Tecnoctitlan all have their own songs titled “Keep Calm and Carry On,” and that’s just to name a few. I’m actually surprised I haven’t heard of any movies with this title yet. Keyword: Yet.
But why are we so obsessed with this phrase? Most of you probably don’t even know where it came from. I bet a majority of the hipsters with this poster hanging above their bed couldn’t tell you that it was a result of World War II.
During World War II, the British government designed a few different morale- boosting posters to display around the British Isles during the hard times. These posters were all designed similarly with a bold colored background, the symbolic crown of King George VI, and a plain yet compelling font. Their initial purpose was to convey a message of encouragement from the King himself. The first two posters read “Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might” and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.” These were posted on public transport, in shop windows, and upon notice boards all across Britain. The third and final poster they designed had the same appeal and simplicity, stating the simple phrase we all know, “Keep Calm and Carry On”. They planned to post this upon the invasion of Britain by Germany, but this never happened and the poster was never officially seen by the public. Very few people even knew about it— funny how that’s the one that’s so popular today.
So you’re probably wondering how we found these posters. Well, in 2000 a copy of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was rediscovered by Stuart Manley, co-owner of Barter Books, a secondhand bookstore set in a restored Victorian train station in Alnwick, Northumberland, North East England, when he was going through a bunch of forgotten old books he had purchased at an auction. After showing it to his wife Mary, who loved the poster so much she had it framed and put it up near the store’s cash register, it caused a sensation amongst customers. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the British government after 50 years, the image is public domain, so Stuart and Mary Manley were able to reprint copies for their customers. Then, others inside and outside of Britain also got a hold of it, hence the memes and t-shirts and other random commodities.
So it makes sense why the British would fancy these posters—it’s a part of their history. As The Economist puts it perfectly, “it taps directly into the country’s mythic image of itself: unshowily brave and just a little stiff, brewing tea as the bombs fall.” And maybe we’re obsessed with it because we tend to latch on to British culture with a lot of things (music, television, movies, fashion, etc.) It’s also just a simple phrase of motivation to keep us hanging on during hard times. But maybe we should think twice before making another stupid parody of it, and try to remember that it was originally created to tell everyone to shut the hell up despite getting bombed by the Germans.
Photography credited to Than Tibbetts via Creative Commons licensing.
