Hands up. Who’s never heard the saying “Keep calm and carry on?” Nobody!

What most don’t know though is that this (often annoying) catchphrase wasn’t made up by a modern day marketing genius but actually dates back to the Second World War.

In 1939 the Ministry of Information, charged with handling communications with the British public put together a series of motivational posters to reassure citizens during the war.

The first two messages posted that September were: “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 the last message commissioned to strengthen morale, but the British government gave orders to use it only in case of serious crisis, emergency or invasion. Two and a half million copies were printed up, never used and left to rot until the owner of a small bookshop, Barter Books, in the North East of England, purchased a trunk of used books and found one of the original posters inside.

Thus was born the iconic phrase, now used all over the world, and, for any type of, mostly personal, crisis (and non.)

Carry on!

maka language consulting
www.makaitalia.com