Keep Calm and… Read This Post
Posters and other products using similar sentences have been flooding London for quite 
sometime now. In fact, it is not even the first time that they became popular. Social media has probably contributed quite a bit to their popularity lately. You just have to check Facebook to see specific pages. There has even been a project to localise (translate) these posters to adapt them to various markets. They are fun, but there are so many around that I decided to look into where they come from, a bit of history and some fun.
It is quite interesting to see that is part of of a marketing campaign commissioned by the UK Government just before the second world war. These posters were designed to boost the morale of the British people during the hard times ahead. The crown displayed is King George VI´s.
Curiously enough, the Brits would never see the best known of the three posters (on the right) officially. The reason being that it was meant to be released if the Nazis invaded the country, which never happened. The first two posters were displayed in shop windows, boards, etc across UK.
It is believed that most of these posters were destroyed around 1945, although a small number remained in the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum in London. Some of others have been found in different ways – by chance, in a programme on UK TV.
The power of words! The sentence has become very related to British culture. There are so many expressions that we have first heard on adverts, and which still keep being used. How many can you recall?
I have posted below some of the funniest and more interesting ones, just for laughs. Enjoy!
I really really loved this post. It calmed me right down!
Good. My job is done, then! Thanks for keep coming back.
I bought ‘Keep Calm It’s Only Christmas’ cards to send to family and friends at home. It really is all over the place. I saw a bunch of Keep Calm things when I was in Canada last.
Really? It´s gone international. I guess it fits quite well with the times we are living. Keep calm…
Loving it! 😉
Good to read! 🙂
One of the papers in London were giving out the Keep Calm… posters out for free with the weekend version in 2008. I got a copy and stuck it in my bedroom – it’s so English and I love the history behind it. Great post! Keep calm and travel on!
`Keep calm and travel on´ That´s a good one!
Great modification for the ‘Read This Blog’ – great post overall. FYI They recently auctioned original posters at Christie’s (July I think) that were newly found.
Thanks for the info and for kind words! I guess there will always be collectors interested in memorabilia. But, it still baffles me the amount of money that people pay for some things.
Pingback:3rd attempt ? | From the 90's