The British Home Planning Committee

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    • 06/09/2019 at 11:33 #32512
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      A helmeted youngster with his gas mask carried in its box, admires a propaganda billboard in a London street, September 1939.

      The British Home Planning Committee was tasked in April of 1939 with devising poster designs that would be simple, striking and difficult for the already well-developed German propaganda machine to duplicate. They settled on three slogans printed in fine type against a bold colour backdrop topped with the only image in the series, the crown of King George VI. The first slogan printed was “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory,” the second “Freedom Is in Peril Defend It with All Your Might,” and the third “Keep Calm and Carry On.” The idea was to convey a message of encouragement from the King himself, a rallying cry to inspire people through the initial shocks and horrors of war on the home front.

      Production on all three began in August of 1939. War was seen as inevitable by then, and the nascent Ministry wanted to have posters printed and ready for wide distribution when the other shoe dropped. A million “Your Courage” posters, 600,000 “Freedom Is in Peril” posters and 2.5 million “Keep Calm” posters were printed, but only the first two were ever distributed and posted everywhere from shop windows to outdoor advertising billboards. “Keep Calm” was kept in reserve for a top potential panic-inducing event like a German invasion of Britain. The worst case scenario didn’t happen, so “Keep Calm” never actually made it to the streets. (http://www.thehistoryblog.com)

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