Keep Calm and Carry On

The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader.

Keep Calm and Carry On. And while you’re doing so, have a look at the story behind those ubiquitous “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters.

STIFF UPPER LIP

In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the U.K. declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. The war would not be confined to battlefields. In 1940, Nazi planes brought the war across the English Channel, raining bombs on major British cities, a strategic campaign known as “the Blitz.” The population was terrified, and beyond air-raid warnings and instructing people to hide out in basements, there wasn’t a lot that the government could do to protect them from falling bombs. Amid the terror of the Blitz, the government’s Ministry of Information was given the task of coming up with a public-relations campaign to boost the morale of a people under siege.

But it didn’t happen overnight. As early as 1936, the government began developing posters adorned with morale-boosting slogans. They wanted to be ready to plaster major English cities with those posters within 24 hours of a declaration of war with Germany… if war did come.

They were ready. Just hours after the declaration of war on September 3, 1939, two posters began appearing on walls and street lamps around London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, and other potential targets. They came in two designs: “Freedom Is in Peril. Defend It with All Your Might” and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.” Each slogan was printed in simple, easy-to-read type beneath the image of the Tudor Crown, a familiar symbol that had been used on everything from government-inspected meat products to telephone booths.

POP-AGANDA

But the most famous World War II British motivational poster was the one that said “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Except that it was never widely used as a morale-boosting poster. The concept and design were executed, along with the two posters that were widely circulated. But “Keep Calm and Carry On” was held back— the agency was saving it to use in case things ever got really bleak, when and if the Nazis invaded the U.K. by land. Fortunately, that never happened, and the 2.5 million “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters that had been printed were never used. All but a few were destroyed, and the slogan faded into history.

For 60 years.

In 2000, Stuart and Mary Manley, owners of Barter Books in the English town of Alnwick, discovered one in the bottom of an old box of used books. They decided to hang what they thought was a common World War II relic up on the wall of the bookstore. Result: Dozens of customers wanted to buy one. Figuring (correctly) that the government-issued poster was in the public domain, the Manleys began making and selling reproductions.

KEEP CALM AND CASH IN

(Image credit: GrindtXX)

And because it’s in the public domain, anyone can make copies of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster and sell them. And they have. A 36-year-old British TV producer named Mark Coop thought the slogan would look great— and sell well— emblazoned on T-shirts, cuff links, blankets… and pretty much everything. In 2007, he set up a website to sell his wares. Four years later, after failing to trademark the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” in the U.K., Coop successfully registered the mark with the European Union and proceeded to get all the other imitators (and the Manleys) kicked off eBay. But that hasn’t stopped them (or the Manleys) from selling “Keep Calm” merchandise, including dozens of parodies that have shown up on posters, mugs, T-shirts, etc., always rendered in the same font as the original “Keep Calm…” with a clever graphic in place of the crown.

These are some of the dozens of Keep Calm variations available on t-shirts at the NeatoShop.

Here are some of our favorites:

• “Keep Calm and Rock On” (with electric guitars)

• “Keep Calm and Drink Beer” (with a picture of a beer)

• “Keep Calm and Call Batman” (with a Batman logo)

• “Now Panic and Freak Out” (with an upside-down crown)

• “Screw Calm and Get Angry”

• “Keep Calm and Cary Grant” (with a low-flying airplane, like the one in North by Northwest)

• “Change Words and Be Hilarious”

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader. The 26th annual edition of Uncle John’s wildly successful series is all-new and jam-packed with the BRI’s patented mix of fun and information.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!