Have you heard the phrase, “Keep calm and carry on”? It means to stay relaxed and keep going, even when things are difficult.

If you haven’t heard “Keep calm and carry on,” maybe you’ve seen it.

Maybe you’ve seen it on posters, on coffee mugs, on notebooks, or t-shirts. Maybe you’ve seen it on a magnet, a water bottle, a keychain, or a sticker. Or maybe you’ve seen it on a phone case, a doormat, or a throw pillow.

If you haven’t seen “Keep calm and carry on” in any of those places, maybe you’ve seen one of the many parodies or adaptations, like “Keep calm and drink tea” or “Keep calm and wash your hands.”

Why are so many people telling us to keep calm and do something? This is the story of one of the most famous cultural slogans in English: keep calm and carry on.

Let’s pick up the story in the year 2000, in the town of Alnwyck, in the northeast of England. Barter Books is a secondhand bookstore housed in an old railway station. And employees there found a poster hidden in a dusty box.

The poster was bright red. It had a simple illustration of a crown on the top. And in very simple, clear lettering, it said: “Keep calm and carry on.”

The poster was produced by the British Ministry of Information in 1939, on the eve of World War II. The British government was afraid that the country would be the target of bombing raids, and that society would break down. So the Ministry of Information prepared propaganda to influence public opinion and shape behavior. They produced films, radio broadcasts, books, pamphlets, and posters.

Three posters were produced at this time. All of them were designed to motivate citizens during wartime. One poster said, “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.” Another said, “Freedom is in Peril. Defend it with All Your Might.” These two posters were mass-produced and displayed all over England. But people didn’t like them: the response was overwhelmingly negative. So these two posters were pulled down.

The third poster—the only one that was any good—said “Keep calm and carry on.” About two and a half million copies were produced, but they never saw the light of day, not after the negative response to other slogans. So copies of all three posters were destroyed in 1940, and recycled.

But at least one copy of “Keep calm and carry on” survived—the copy they found in the basement of Barter Books.

The owners of the bookstore liked the poster, so they framed it and hung it up in their store. Customers commented on it, so the shop owners started to make and sell copies. And that might have been the end of the story.

But in 2005, a design critic wrote an article for The Guardian, a British newspaper with a wide global reach. The critic listed the poster as one of her top ten favorite pieces of design. All of a sudden, Barter Books was flooded with orders for “Keep calm” prints. Soon, “Keep calm and carry on” became an internet sensation.

A phrase meant to maintain public order during wartime had been completely repurposed for a much different age. So why did this slogan become so popular, more than sixty years after it was created?

For the British, the slogan evokes feelings of pride and nostalgia. Many people consider the fight in World War II to be Britain’s finest hour. It was a time of great sacrifice and tremendous danger. Remember, Britain was subject to the heavy bombing raids that the propagandists were afraid of. But the British people responded with resiliency. They didn’t need propaganda posters: they kept calm and carried on, even without being told to do so.

The phrase is also applicable to the modern world, which is growing ever more complex, stressful, and uncertain. It can be a reminder not to give up, to keep our wits about us even as the world changes. The spirit of stoicism and resiliency that got the English through World War II can get us through anything. Let’s just keep calm and carry on. Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister during the financial crisis, had a “Keep calm” poster in his office.

The phrase is also easy to adapt, parody, and commercialize. If you sell tea, why not put up a poster—in exactly the same lettering, with the same crown image—that says, “Keep calm and drink tea”? If you make t-shirts, you can make shirts with funny slogans, like “Keep calm and call your mom” or “Keep calm and rock on.” And if you’re a public health authority in a worldwide pandemic, you can make a poster that says, “Keep calm and wash your hands.”

The possibilities are endless—thanks to a little help from British law. See, the poster was created by the government. And government media in Britain falls under the protection of “crown copyright.” That means the government owns the intellectual property, the words, the images, of work that the government produces. But the crown copyright lasts for just fifty years. After half a century, anyone can use the images for free.

That means the phrase “Keep calm and carry on,” the lettering, the illustration of the crown—everything—is in the public domain. Anyone can use it for personal or commercial reasons.

And use it they have. “Keep calm and carry on” has become one of the most recognizable English slogans in the twenty-first century, not just in Britain, not just in English-speaking countries, but around the world.

Jeff’s take

I really like it because it’s just five words, all one syllable. Two words, then “and”, then two more words. “Keep calm” is a phrase by itself; “carry on” is a phrase by itself. So putting them one after the other has a nice symmetry.

You can even buy a computer font that mimics the typeface. The original poster featured hand-created sans-serif lettering. But a modern font called “Keep Calm” reproduces the original lettering.

The post How ‘Keep calm and carry on’ became a famous cultural slogan appeared first on Plain English.