'We had no idea of what it would become': How Keep Calm and Carry On became a divisive 21st-Century phenomenon

After a forgotten WW2 propaganda poster was discovered in 2000, it found an astounding new resonance in 21st-Century Britain – becoming an endlessly memeable template that is both cherished and mocked.

In the spring of 2000, a forgotten World War Two-era British propaganda poster was rediscovered in a dusty box at Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop housed in a former Victorian railway station in Alnick, Northumberland. The red poster and its bold, unadorned message beneath a Tudor crown, Keep Calm and Carry On, would resonate with a world far removed from wartime Britain, sparking a viral design trend and becoming one of the 21st Century's most recognisable and repurposed cultural slogans.

The poster, commissioned by the British Ministry of Information in 1939 as part of a three-part series to bolster public morale amid the threat of war, was never officially released, and had rarely been displayed. Dr Daniel Cowling, senior historian at the National Army Museum, London, says the Ministry of Information often used posters, cinema, radio, books and pamphlets to influence public opinion during World War Two. In addition to the Keep Calm poster were two others, which carried the slogans Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory and Freedom is in Peril. Defend it with All Your Might.

"On the eve of the war, it was widely accepted that bombing raids would lead to the rapid and complete breakdown of society", Cowling tells the BBC. "Keep Calm and Carry On was designated as a specific response in their aftermath. It played upon stereotypes of British stoicism in the hope of restoring order amid the expected chaos."

The other two posters were plastered across railway stations, factories, and shop windows, but received a tepid response. Mass Observation surveys suggested that public response to the wider "Home Publicity" poster campaign was overwhelmingly negative, says Cowling. British towns and cities did experience heavy bombing raids, but there was no breakdown of society. "Rather, many civilians responded with resilience and spirited togetherness. [So], the Keep Calm poster would have seemed rather patronising to some British civilians," he explains.

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The iconic poster, which was designed by British illustrator Ernest Wallcousins and of which about 2.5 million copies were printed, was held back. It remained largely unseen by the wider world, as most copies were pulped in 1940 to conserve paper for the war effort. A few copies survived, tucked away in archives, including the one in the box at Barter Books.

Stuart and Mary Manley, owners of Barter Books, were taken by the poster. "We decided to have it framed and put it up in the bookshop. We had no idea of what it would become. Mary resisted the idea of having copies printed, so I had to have them done secretly. The popularity of the copies soon changed her mind," Stuart Manley tells the BBC.

For the first few years, the poster's popularity remained purely regional, confined to bookshop visitors. The explosion began when Guardian journalist Susie Steiner included it in a 2005 article on her 10 favourite design items. "Our staff spent the next month packing posters sent across the world," Manley says.

A 21st-Century phenomenon

The poster had reappeared in a radically different landscape than the one it was intended for, one shaped by a rapidly growing internet culture, by irony and anxiety. But it soon found its place in the new world, becoming the ultimate shorthand for British stoicism and a platform for endless parody. "I think it resonated so powerfully because it perfectly encapsulates the dominant popular memory of the war in modern Britain; that it was the country's 'finest hour' and a time when people stoically 'carried on' against what could have felt like overwhelming odds," says Lucy Noakes, Rab Butler Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex, and President of the Royal Historical Society, tells the BBC.

By 2007, sales of the poster had reached 50,000 and its popularity hasn't waned since. By 2009, Keep Calm and Carry On played into the national mood after the 2008 financial crisis. Its message of stoic calm felt reassuring to some amid economic turmoil, and it became a symbol of enduring hardship with dignity for many. Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister from 2007-10, was said to have displayed a copy of the poster on his office wall, while celebrities such as Radio DJ Chris Evans, Rupert Grint and James May helped popularise the message by wearing it on T-shirts. "While the poster's slogan might be associated with a British stoicism and a stiff upper lip, you could argue that it is more specifically a visual association with England. It is part of a national mythologising of wartime spirit which continues to shape so much of our cultural memory and identity," Katy Parry, professor of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds tells the BBC.

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Fuelled by the reach of the internet, the phrase gained global traction and captured the attention of the international media. Today, the message adorns countless T-shirts, mugs, key rings and walls – even in Germany. Since its rediscovery, the poster and its caption have morphed into a meme template and have been endlessly reimagined. Keep Calm and Drink Tea. Keep Calm and Code On. Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake.

Simplicity of design

The slogan has also been appropriated by protesters, "subverting the original propaganda message by adapting it to new situations and new social challenges ('Keep calm and resist')", says Parry. "This shows how existing familiarity with a phrase can provide a shorthand tactic to attract attention, and hopefully get your message across in a memorable and often humorous way."

The poster's plainness has also contributed to its resonance. "The simplicity of the design is crucial to its adaptability, with the crown at the top, and five large words, in white sans serif typeface, on a red background. Red is a powerful colour and catches the eye. [That's] why it is adaptable to contemporary visual culture, where a vast array of media messages compete for our attention," Parry explains.

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And the endless copying and commodifying that took the poster from serious wartime messaging to a kitschy consumer product is hardly new. "Pictures like Van Gogh's Self-Portraits, Munch's The Scream… these are very intense works, and yet they have been endlessly subverted," British graphic designer and typographer Jonathan Barnbook tells the BBC. He adds that human beings can take the most serious of contexts and subvert them into something unexpected – tenderness, humour, or even absurdity. "Turning pain into play, or anguish into understanding, it helps us connect with each other," he says.

The endless parodying and reworking has proven deeply unpopular with some, however, who see it as a symbol of British elitism, wartime propaganda, or a tone-deaf response to genuine crises. Over the years, critics have mocked its stiff-upper-lip ethos, questioning whether "keeping calm" is always the right answer. For others, its endless parodies – from Now Panic and Freak Out to Keep Calm and Drink Wine – have drained it of all meaning. 

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In a 2016 essay for the Guardian entitled "the sinister message behind the slogan that seduced the nation", Owen Hatherley defined the poster's message as "austerity nostalgia". The Power of Keep Calm and Carry On, Hatherley writes, "comes from a yearning for an actual or imaginary English patrician attitude of stiff upper lips and muddling through. This is, however, something that largely survives only in the popular imagination, in a country devoted to services and consumption, where elections are decided on the basis of house-price value, and given to sudden, mawkish outpourings of sentiment. The poster isn't just a case of the return of the repressed, it is rather the return of repression itself."

Still, its survival speaks volumes about the cultural appeal of reassurance in chaotic times. In its many reincarnations, the poster's core message – calm perseverance in the face of adversity – continues to strike a chord. It has thrived in meme culture because its message is timelessly adaptable; calm resilience suits both crisis and comedy. "There is a nostalgic aspect to meme culture, where old memes re-emerge for new causes to signal an association with a certain set of values. This is playful, but it can be serious at the same time," Parry says.

She adds that Dr Bex Lewis, who wrote the 2017 book Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster, points out that although it may have been thought of as patronising at the time, it now "appeals to our sense of irony".

It reflects nostalgia for a time when people "pulled together"; "had a cup of tea" and simply "got on with it". Yet its global popularity shows that while it embodies a certain British spirit, it also rises above national identity – and seems destined to stay part of the cultural landscape.

Barnbrook believes the poster, simple to create by a human or computer, is ripe for "being endlessly outputted or having every conceivable idea put expressed easily in a very strong direct way". A single piece of design, deceptively simple and steeped in history, has come to symbolise everything from resilience to resignation, and continues to endure in an age of global uncertainty.

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