Keep Calm and Carry Yarn

We clearly have David Simpkin on the look out for images of subversion now (nothing new there then), so here’s another gem he’s found from “The Daily What“

Mock the Week: Mocks David Cameron Poster

If you get a chance (probably available in the UK til Wednesday), check out Mock the Week for last week – excellent humour re: David Cameron’s new poster campaign – they got about 6 minutes of mileage out of it. The real poster is visible on 760 billboards across the UK… this was Dara’s interpretation of what the poster should have said… Very scathing that it’s all personality, no policies… hmmm, a certain Conservative MP made the same error post-war (Winston Churchill’s 1945 campaign was all about personality, Labour was all about policy!)

Keep Smiling and Put it On Expenses

This is one the funniest variations I have seen on Keep Calm and Carry On, and you can buy the design from LineSauce. I thought I’d mentioned it before, but it appears that I’ve only done that in conference papers, so enjoy!

Propaganda Parodies

Subverted images are always fascinating, and tell us a lot about connections with the time that the original poster was produced, and the time that the subverted image appears - in this example at a time of attempted re-election for George Bush.

“View a collection of anti-war cartoons, remixed propaganda posters, and other parody art expressing political dissent” on anti-war cartoons and propaganda parodies.

Appropriate use of Maoist Poster?

“But how much laughter would there have been if Powershop had dressed them up as Brownshirts or SS Guards? The free pass given to one particular breed of homicidal totalitarians continues.

And it continues today on Air New Zealand’s Grab-A-Seat website. I’m sure Air New Zealand wouldn’t countenance displaying a Nazi propaganda poster extolling “Blood, Soil and Sacrifice” and copies of Mein Kampf as an inducement to buy seats on their flights, but right there on their website exhorting you to fly the friendly skies to Hong Kong is this image ripped directly from a Maoist propaganda poster from the Cultural Revolution – you know, that fun time in China when thought police ruled and around 7,731,000 people were brutally murdered by for not following the diktats of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, which our peasant friend clutches to his breast:”

Read the full story on this blog.

Pucker Up…

From the same seller as the previous post, who really seems to be making the most appropriate use of subverting the “Keep Calm and Carry on” slogan!

“In the tradition of “Keep Calm and Carry On”, these cute pink pocket mirrors provide an updated perspective while maintaining the typographical integrity of the original wartime poster.

Read about the history of “Keep Calm and Carry On” right here: http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/keepcalm.php

This perfect pocket/handbag/purse mirror is 2.25″. The image is protected with mylar and the mirror is glass. A great size for checking on your lippy.”

I might have to buy one, what about you?

Christmas Keep Calm and Carry On Style?!

I’m not sure that I’m bothering with Christmas Cards this year (I usually do an e-card, and then a handful of cards for people who are not online/who I won’t see… otherwise where do you stop with the writing of cards – it just goes crazy). Christmas is about more than cards, food, etc. (30 seconds to explain what I believe), but I can recognise Christmas for many in these cards! Me… this Christmas I’ll be cooking dinner for many people in a hotel in Lauterbrunnen… in return I should get to meet some interesting people… and a day on the slopes! Want to buy these cards from Etsy?

Rosie the Riveter: We Can Do It!

“Rosie the Riveter became popular during World War II when women joined the work force in support of troops serving overseas. The most well-known Rosie icon came from J. Howard Miller’s We Can Do It! propaganda poster. Created for Westinghouse, the Pittsburgh-based artist’s Rosie appeared on magazines, newspapers and posters encouraging women to join the work force. Six million women replaced the men who left for war in the factories, shipyards and industrial plants.  Michigan factory worker Geraldine Doyle modeled for the poster art in 1942.” Read about the modern day competition, and another’s thoughts on how this poster feeds into the ideas of work ethics.

How is Keep Calm and Carry On Doing?

So, what’s been happening with Keep Calm and Carry On in the news?

• Christmas Gifts at the Imperial War Museum
• Sterephonics Album: Guardian Review
• Etsy debate as to the origin of the term
• Simon Calder: Predictions for a “Winter of Discontent“
• Humour On Tour
• Duxbury Art Association
• Shop selling posters are “Best of Toronto“
• Random Esquire makes a purchase
• Nostalgia shops are blooming!
• “Keep Calm and Carry Me” Babygro THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST FIND OF THE WEEK!
• Cheryl Cole deals with musical success
• “Over It“
• Khaleej Times (well written, but inaccurate about the posters being up!)
• Brought into the breakfast debate!
• Home decoration (how does that change it’s meaning?); and again
• Affirmations for the iPhone?
• As an inspirational musing?
• Breathe Deep… (subversion); and again
• Spoof Calendars; guy version
• The little book makes a reappearance!
• Keep Calm and Ride On
• Cards to buy (along with every other combination that you can think of on Etsy!)
• Screensaver
• Used by developers
• A cliché?
• Remember when reading healthcare articles!
• Part of an awesome home makeover
• Review of the Left Press
• A daily reminder; Gift tags
• An analysis of the design style.
• Keep Calm and Curry On
• “Fantasy English“

An interesting mix, eh? I have so much information I could add (maybe not specifically on Keep Calm and Carry On, but more generically about posters), but life is kinda getting in the way, so slow and steady it will be!

You Country (Still) Needs You

That most iconic of war posters “Your Country Needs You” appeared on the front cover of Times 2 last week, discussing contemporary recruitment to the Army:

“Recruitment costs in 2007-08 were £95.1 million, an increase of nearly £30 million in six years. National marketing and advertising accounts for 27 per cent of this and the army regards this area as the way forward, although it potentially means contracting more of its business to the private sector. To this end the ARG has a civilian marketing director, Colin Cook, “embedded” alongside army staff at Upavon. “Recruitment must be a sophisticated operation,” he says. As with warfare itself, the blanket bombing approach of past campaigns — appealing to patriotism (“Your Country Needs You”) or macho careerism (“Join the Professionals”) — has been superseded by precision strategies employing “targeted messaging”.

One of Cook’s latest decisions is to appoint a new agency AKQA — best know for its Nike ads — to make the internet the Army’s primary recruitment platform. It is already on the offensive and this summer Operation Solomon took place, backed by a TV and radio campaign. The campaign, co-ordinated by the advertising agency Publicis, hinged around ads that drew people to the Army website where they could engage with an interactive game: Start Thinking Soldier.

“We need to talk to young recruits in a way they understand,” Mike Wade, the Publicis planning director, says. “A 55-year-old army brigadier is not going to be able to communicate with a 17-year-old recruit so we have to engage our audience. Start Thinking Soldier was aimed at getting people to come back again and again. It’s the model for the way everyone will have to work in the future.”

….

The recruits are frank about their reasons for joining up. Each one echoes the view that serving in Afghanistan or another theatre of war is “part of the job”. Brenden Walsh, from Hertford, is typical of the bunch: he’s a good-looking lad headed for the Grenadier Guards, who talks enthusiastically of army opportunities (“skiing, mountaineering, skydiving . . .”). When pressed about combat, he shrugs: “Those people died serving their country and I’m proud and appreciative of their efforts. What would the world be like without people like that? Terrorism has dropped as a result of our efforts out there.”

Read More