![]() Surrey Dane and Huxley also proposed a contract with the advertising agency S.H. It was quickly agreed that HM Stationery Office should be placed in charge of printing and a programme for distribution was prepared alongside a budget for preliminary printing. The Publicity Planning subcommittee were also responsible for the later stages of production and distribution. They eventually decided that the slogan should invoke a ‘state of mind’ and commissioned a graphic artist to draw up a series of roughs. Vaughan (an advertising agent who was appointed provisional Head of Production) was formed. The design process accelerated in May 1939 as funding was transferred from the secret service to the Treasury and a small ‘Publicity Planning’ subcommittee comprising of William Surrey Dane (the managing director of Odhams press), Gervas Huxley (the former head of publicity for the Empire Marketing Board) and later W.G.V. Stalled Plans for Production and Distribution ![]() It was clear from the outset that this would be a difficult task, with initial proposals for a slogan reading ‘England is prepared’ abandoned in favour of the less politicised claim that ‘We’re going to see it through’. The team were instructed that this would need to attract attention, complement preconceived ideas about the conflict, be universal in appeal and balance a ‘steadying influence’ with an incitement to ‘spontaneous’ action. Of course this left questions about the message. It was for this reason that the planners began to experiment with the use of a ‘special and handsome type’. It was decided that the posters must ‘stand out strikingly’ from commercial efforts and stressed that they should be regarded as part of a coherent campaign. They paid particular attention to proposals for a series of posters that would reassure the public by stressing the certainty of ultimate victory and emphasising that the whole community was committed to the war effort. The members quickly agreed that the MOI should undertake a general campaign to present ‘the national cause’ immediately upon the outbreak of war. It was only after the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) was asked to produce a secret report on foreign propaganda policy in March 1939 that this assumption was challenged and thoughts turned to the necessary content of such material.Ī new Home Publicity committee duly began work on 6 April 1939 with lunchtime meetings between civil servants and volunteer academics, publicists and publishers taking place on a weekly basis. However their efforts were constrained by an earlier agreement that these activities would not begin until later into any future war (with the MOI to initially focus wholly on the issue of official news and censorship). The MOI’s planners had first considered ‘Home Publicity’ in August 1937 and returned to the subject in July 1938. The ‘Keep Calm’ design was never officially issued and only a very small number of originals have survived to the present day. It was produced as part of a series of three posters that would be issued in the event of war (the others read ‘Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory’ and ‘Freedom is in Peril Defend it with all Your Might’). 'Keep Calm and Carry On’ was coined by the shadow Ministry of Information (MOI) at some point between 27 June and 6 July 1939. This blog post marks the 75th anniversary of this significant cultural artefact by exploring its place in the British government’s preparations for the Second World War and drawing attention to the Treasury compromise which led to the poster’s creation. ![]() Yet its popularity also obscures a more complicated history. The phrase has reinforced a popular view of life in the Second World War and has been reproduced on everything from champagne flutes to smartphone cases. The instruction to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has become one of the most recognisable slogans in British history.
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