Keep Calm and Carry On and other Second World War Posters » credit crunch — Keep Calm and Carry On and other Second World War Posters

Keep Calm and Carry On Update

drbexl — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:15:02 +0000

So, what’s been going on in the world of Keep Calm and Carry On, whilst we’ve been enjoying the halcyon days of British summer (and with all those tales of the recession coming to an end, has the popularity of the slogan taken a downturn?)

Troops On Tour order the t-shirts
A casting call for a production entitled “Keep Calm and Carry On” (deadline 28th September)
Keep Calm and Sew Stuff (machine design) (made same mistake as me!)
Vera Lynn quotes the poster, as her album hits No.1, decades after she recorded it.
Card-carrying University of Illinois President B. Joseph White
Motivational Slogans/World-War-II, hand-in-hand
Lord Paul Myners (City Minister)
In diamante!
Necklaces
Wayne Rooney listening to the Stereophonics “Keep Calm and Carry On” album (loves it, apparently)
A reader comments that this converted church is like Barter Books…
Stereophonics : Live (Listen to a track from their album)
Keep Calm and Carry On Collecting (Nazi Relics)
Keep Calm and Smell the Roses
Keep Calm and Carry On Craze
San Franciscans love it?
Still saving from ‘freak out’ in the recession, but apparently also available as a pepper spray!
Critique of the “police poster” series.
Clutch Bag
For Reading F.C.
Derren Brown “remain calm”, made others think of KCCO!
Effortless Anthropologie remembers it as a 2007 design issue…
1940s weekend, Norfolk
Submitted to the “Snowclone” database (What’s a snowclone?)
Remember the slogan when reading health articles!
Advising expats from the US, living in the UK
Graffitied onto a train
An insult to those with depression
‘Making art and ignoring the dishes‘ (what a great slogan in its own right!)

Competition: FREE 'Keep Calm and Carry On' Book

drbexl — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:39:40 +0000

Win one of TEN copies of “Keep Calm and Carry On: Good Advice for Hard Times” (Publisher’s Information). I love great quotes, and this book is full of some excellent ones!

SOME OF THE GREAT QUOTES HIGHLIGHTED IN THIS BOOK:

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions” Ellen Glasgow
“Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes” Francis Bacon
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats” Voltaire
“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them” Bernard M Baruch
“It ain’t no use putting up your umbrella til it rains” Alice Caldwell Rice
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow” Swedish proverb
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you” Dale Carnegie
“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory” Albert Schweitzer
“Failures are finger posters on the road to achievement” C.S. Lewis
“When written in Chinese the word ‘Crisis’ is composed to two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity” John F Kennedy
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship” Benjamin Franklin
“Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil” Henry Fielding

Plenty more quotes in that little book, so to win one of 10 copies…

The QUESTION IS: Who was the Studio Manager at the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War? (Clue, check out http://www.ww2poster.co.uk)

THE CHANCE TO WIN? As I have somewhat of a love-affair with Twitter, I’ll be giving away 10 copies to a random set of ten Twitterers who Retweet the following entry:

RT @drbexl, Keep Calm and Carry On #kcco, www.ww2poster.co.uk. MOI Studio Manager: [answer] (Answer/RT for chance to win 1 of 10)

The 10 winners will be announced via my Twitter on the afternoon of Monday 20th July (GMT). Winners will be sent their prizes direct from the publishers (they’ve said they’re happy to ship worldwide), but will need to email me names/addresses, which I will request via Twitter (I will pass them onto the publishers and won’t use them for other purposes).

Wikipedia: Still There + Some New Additions

drbexl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:47:01 +0000

Good, I seem to have got the level of the content right (oh, I have more, but I don’t think they want everything on there!), as I’m still on there, and the main editor has gone in and made further changes, so that’s all good news! Welcome if you’re visiting via Wikipedia!

Meantime, another article in response to Rob Walker’s article: Signs of the Times

Wikipedia Entry: Keep Calm and Carry On

drbexl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:47:08 +0000

Who knows who edits these different Wikipedia entries. I have tried a few times to add information to this site, but I think partly because so many companies are trying to sell it, they are being super-strict. However, I am the global expert on the subject, so here’s hoping they think I have something to say. If not, you can read it here!

Now Panic and Freak Out and other variations

drbexl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:37:39 +0000

Now, everyone knows about the alternate slogan “Now Panic and Freak Out”, but I don’t think I’ve ever put an image of it up here, this one is taken from Threadless.

I have always loved finding subverted images of the posters that I studied:

The further that you go into Google Images, the more variations that you find!
Flickr has a number of “Design Variations“
“Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake” was also featured in the New York Times
“Keep Calm and Spray On” perfume!
Keep Calm and Carry On (with mice)
Keep Calm and McLaren On
Keep Calm and Customise
Deviant Art
Detroit Variation
12 months of ideas on a calendar
DoobyBrain: Change Words and Be Hilarious
Make your own!

Other Entries

What Quebec Wants
Dr Bex Lewis in the New York Times (now this is the closest I’ve come to seeing the print item – so far!)
A blog entry by Crossed Wires.
Whirled Peas: KCCO
Choose a Shoe (but it’s not an RAF poster, it’s the Ministry of Information!)
Cian Ó Laoghaire
Leave Duff and Carry On (The Simpsons-esque)
Slogan for a Parenting Blog!
So many variations in colour too. I have the red one from Barter Books, but I have to say I love purple nearly as much, it’s tempting!

Who likes it/mentions it (according to Google Alerts!)?
I’m just fascinated to see how it’s been repurposed!

Lose That Girl
Leah from London
Breizh from Morgantown, USA
See in Technicolour
Daisy-Chain
PlusNet Community
Meet the Hazards
Music, Track No 6 on their MySpace (not sure it’s my taste, but interesting none-the-less)
Interior Designer (anti-the-”fad”)
Should the Swedes take on the phrase?
Splendicity
Give Away Today
Silvio Berlusconi?
Parasol Party
Rob Cherry, seen in a Beach Hut
What(Ever) [highlighted some rude ones, just to warn you!]
Pedlars
Lexie (mind the music!)
BCreativeNot Crazy
Jamie
Helen Morgan

I have, like, over 100 Google Alerts come in – stopped at around 40ish, have other work to do today, but there’s so much information on this – SO interesting!

Barter Books: The Home of the Original "Keep Calm and Carry On" Poster

drbexl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:18:58 +0000

I know people say I should be cashing in on the Keep Calm and Carry On craze, and I will be giving a couple of conference papers related to the subject this summer (and I’m planning on creating a more general-audience friendly paper too, so let me know if you’re be interested in that), but I’m more than happy to send all customers to Barter Books, who own one of only 2 original copies of this poster known to be in existence (if you know of another one, I’d be interested to know, although my budget wouldn’t stretch to buying one – currently saving up for the apron!), so they, and the owner of the other poster (I’m sure I’ve seen it at the IWM/National Archives, so maybe there’s more than 2), then own the copyright to those images (if not to the poster itself, which is now publicly available)!

Barter Books sell:

Reproduction Posters
T-Shirts
Aprons & Tea Towels
Mugs & Mouse-Mats
Postcards, Book, Rubber Stamp (Note: This is the book for which I will shortly be hosting a competition, they’ll be 10 copies to win)

Read more in Journalive.co.uk (February 2009)

Thanks to Barter Books for acknowledging that their historical material comes from my PhD, actually, not my PhD, my undergraduate thesis. I have more information, which as I find it, will appear on this blog! I’m not affiliated with Barter Books, but we share a true interest in this poster! I’ve posted this in response to my Twitter feed, where I’d commented that this was the original home, and had a response that @ironyboy had visited the bookshop recently and had thought “pah, copycats”, so, just to clarify… the originators of the craze!

Imperial War Museum recruits Mrs Sew and Sew

drbexl — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:15:53 +0000

Mrs Sew and Sew Engages with New Technology
The other week I referred to the Imperial War Museum’s information ‘Top Tips for Tough Times‘, using advice from the 1940s to those of us stuck in the noughties recession. What they didn’t mention there (a trick missed, I feel), was that they had also set up a blog, and a Twitter feed… a real innovative use of modern technology to bring out relevant information from the 1940s. Anyone who thought my PhD was irrelevant… clearly wrong! And having tracked down a number of public information shorts to use at conferences, the IWM is now uploading a number of great films to YouTube ! Listen to the creative agency: The Team talk about their work.

I love the start of this blog:

“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.”

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.”

Keep Calm and Carry On
A beautifully detailed entry by owentroy, including all of the new police (Keep Calm inspired) posters… which I keep spotting when I don’t have a camera to hand! And the slogan has become so famous (in a way it never was in the Second World War), that it now has its own Wikipedia entry, and had been seen around Westminster, and compared to the anti-terrorism posters. See how many crazy variations have been created, all collated together on Flicrk!

Thesis is listed at the British Library

My thesis, available since June 2004 in the Library and RKE Centre at the University of Winchester, at the Imperial War Museum, and at the Mass Observation Archives, was requested by the British Library earlier this year for digitisation (they should have asked me, I have it on CD!), so can be seen on the computers at the British Library, St Pancras. Still surprised my thesis hasn’t been picked up more by the press, but then I’ve been abroad for most of the past 2 years, and only now getting back to grips with my research and looking at ways of publishing it… although even whilst travelling I managed to complete a chapter for the London Transport Museum, and pre-trip wrote an article for the Second World War Experience Centre.

Keep Calm and Carry On Keeps On

drbexl — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:15:34 +0000

I’ve been keeping a tag on news stories on the resurgence of the Keep Calm and Carry On campaign over the past couple of weeks, and it continues to turn up regularly on the daily digest in a series of bizarre guises, often without reference to its origins, by comics, estate agents, lawyers, retailers, those preparing for weddings, backing for sports teams. Try a search on Etsy, and many different products come back, some subverted (or recycled; take 2)! It’s being used as a form of decoration: “it’s so hard to decide on a colour”, and turns up in a number of blogs, e.g.: 1, 2, 3… and Kitchener gets a look in. It’s now been graffitied onto walls, and the Imperial War Museum is providing “Top Tips for Tough Times“, inspired by the posters. I don’t want to link to the BNP, but they’re using it also now “to symbolise the defiance of British people as they stagger under the greatest immigration invasion of all times and a crushing economic crisis brought on by the corrupt mainstream politicians.”

Calm reminder of wartime carries on sending its message, Sarah Freeman, Yorkshire Post, 31st March 2009
Festival advice: Don’t forget your wellies – whatever the weatherman says, Caitlin Moran, The Times, 28th March 2009
Summit’s happening, Giles Broadbent, wharf.co.uk, 29th March , 2009
Keep Calm and Carry On, David Claiborne, LuxAmericana, 26th March 2009
LITTLEJOHN: This is the BBC Home Service. Keep calm, carry on and don’t panic, D-Day is cancelled, Richard Littlejohn, The Mail, 20th March 2009
War posters could inspire a new national motto, Thane Burnett, The London Free Press, 28th March 2009

You Have the Right Not To Remain Silent
En route to work this morning I spotted a new police poster “you have the right not to remain silent” which reminded me of “Keep Calm and Carry On”… I didn’t think I’d be the only one to make the connection, and of course I wasn’t, here’s a taste of what Carl Morris had to say a couple of days ago (along with a photo of the poster):

Unintended messages
You may have seen the slogan “Keep Calm And Carry On” on posters and t-shirts recently. It’s a poster design from the archives of World War II, when invasion of these islands was expected. It’s now the direct inspiration for this new police campaign. The original has grown in popularity because it’s a quaint relic of a bygone era which has seen its message of stoic British resolve reapplied now. It’s all very tongue in cheek. By using this format, the Home Office may be seeking to be trendy – but they just end up co-opting aspects of what the message meant then and means now. The original was simply a propaganda poster. Draw your own conclusion from that.