Developed in the Spring of that year, the Keep Calm and Carry On tag line pre-dated the outbreak of the Second World War but was apparently never formally broadcast. *************** Does History Help Us Understand What We Need To Do To Dig Deeper?Īs Britain anticipated war with Germany in 1939 – and all the uncertainty that went with another conflict with that country in the space of just over 20 years – the Government set about conceptualising and building communication campaigns aimed at galvanising the will and actions of the people to withstand a further period of hostilities. Let’s be more curious and willing students. We still have much to learn from our military past. And please share with others in your network and on social media. Please enjoy this article (and the true British English spelling) by guest contributor, Emma Campbell Visick. By studying history you might just realize that we’ve been here before. It is also a good reminder of the power of propaganda to shape our thoughts, feelings and actions about contemporary issues. We have much to learn from the past, and hopefully this knowledge can help prevent us from repeating the same mistakes. We owe it to ourselves to be more curious about what has happened in the past. There is so much we don’t know, don’t remember, and are no longer taught about history. I hope you will read through to the very end as I did. It is with joy that I share Emma, her knowledge and perspective with all of you. When I received Emma’s email response to my question, “What’s the backstory of the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan,” I knew I had a blog post in the making. It’s a very good thing to have a well-read jobbing historian (her words, not mine) in your professional network. I have enjoyed many dinner conversations with her and her husband Richard, and come away astounded by how much I don’t know about what transpired in WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and other conflicts that have shaped the world. She is a brilliant thinker, writer, and student of history. Not wanting to believe everything that I read online, I reached out to a good friend in my network, Emma Campbell Visick, who lives and works (and writes) in the United Kingdom. But it was only recently that I became curious about the backstory of this clever slogan.Īfter a quick Google search, which led me to a Wikipedia website, I realized that this slogan has been around for a long time and has historical reference. In fact, I have purchased products from their website and created my own versions of it, like Keep Calm and Finish Strong as the lead image for my four-part blog series on presentation closing techniques and options. I have long admired the “brand” of Keep Calm and Carry On. Enjoy.Photo credit: Minnesota Playlist magazine. But the story's a fine one, too, and the sentiment of the poster, which overexposure had led me to dismiss as trite, becomes moving and inspiring again when resituated in its original context of genuine threat and principled resistance. It's a lovely video, as much for its shots of Barter Books - once a Victorian railway station now overflowing with well-stocked shelves - as for the story it tells. Apparently, customers were so taken with it that the pair began making copies - and an iconic noughties image was born. 50 years later, Stuart found one in a box of books he'd bought at auction, and Mary put it up by the till. Some 2.5m copies of our poster were printed, but in the end they were kept back "held in reserve, intended for use only in times of crisis or invasion", which happily never came. The video tells the story of the Keep Calm posters, which were commissioned by the government during the second world war as part of a wider poster campaign designed to boost morale among the civilian population.
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