Keep Calm and Carry On. Simple and Direct.

Source: thehistoryblog.com

Source: sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

These two posters are very famous today due to a recent trend and overuse of its slogan, especially the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster. They too, demonstrate the importance of language, but this time in political posters. Although the use and fame of this poster has risen in recent times, many do not know its true and rich history.


These series of posters were issued by the British government during the Second World War. They were designed to be simple and uniform in design and to also have a standard typeface making them easily recognizable. The only non-typographical design in the poster was the crown of the queen. The main objective of these posters was to calm and reassure the population of Britain in such harsh times of conflict and extreme danger. The poster above, "Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us to victory" was the first poster of a series of three to be printed and posted around London, in subways stations and shops, on September 1939. The most famous poster of the two, "Keep Calm and Carry On" was actually never released since it was only designed for times of invasion or other extreme situations alike. The posters were later found by a couple that owned a bookshop in London and have ever since been extremely popular.

The language and message of these posters is quite simple, to reassure people in the time of war that in the end everything would fine. Through use of simple and informal language the two posters are able to get the result wanted since the sentences are short and direct. The font design also plays a crucial role in the poster’s effectiveness, due to its large sized and bold letters it can be quickly and easily read. I also believe that the design is one of the main reasons why this poster is able to transmit a certain sensation or feeling to the people that look at it. Due to its uniformity and simplicity, accompanied by the simple sentence, a calm sensation, or feeling, can be more easily transmitted to the people. The main way the second poster is able to reassure the audience is by emphasizing the subject of the sentence through repetition, creating a greater and stronger connection between the poster and the public.


The way the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster is able to soothe people and its simplistic design, adopted by many types of media in recent times, are some of the main causes for its recent popularity. Not only is this slogan sold in different ways such as t-shirts, mugs, posters and other accessories it is also subject to many adaptations made by different people. Adaptations such as “Keep Calm and Do Your Job” or “Keep Calm and Listen to Music.” The way the original posters have been designed and written were done in such a way that it remains original and popular even years after its creation.

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Source: musiccrowns.com

Source: bumbumbum.me

Hipsters and the Genetically Privileged Deserve to Die

Source: theinspirationroom.com 

Source: coloribus.com

One day while waiting at a train station I saw a poster that had a sentence with such large fonts that I was able to read it from the station across mine. The sentence went "Hipsters deserve to die." Which was all I was able to read from where I stood. The next day I remembered that poster and researched it on the internet.

These two posters are for the Lung Cancer Alliance. They are quite famous because of the strong and odd statements present on them. The posters serve as a good example to show how language is used by Public Service Announcements to attract people's attention. They use a short sentence that is in big sized letters which comically states certain kinds of people (hipsters or the genetically privileged), deserve to die. This short and strong sentence is enough to gain the public's attention, after someone looks at it for some time they will find a paragraph placed right next to that sentence in a much smaller sized font clarifying and explaining what the announcement is about. The posters for the Lung Cancer Association are trying to raise people’s awareness about the cancer. In the poster it states that  “it doesn’t discriminate” personifying cancer, meaning that no person is immune to it. Once the person visits the website they are presented with the facts and the message of the campaign, that is even though lung cancer is the deadliest cancer, it has the least funding for research from the government. The main literary device of this poster is the use of a short sentence which is extremely effective in gaining people’s attention. Even if people do not stop, if they are simply walking by it, the sentence is short enough that they are able to read and odd enough to make them curious to the point that they are likely to later research about it.

The effectiveness of short sentences is very important for public service announcements since they are meant to quickly inform and raise awareness about a certain issue. These posters for the Lung Cancer Alliance are a good example. They gain attention and are fast, while at the same time have a hint of comedy, a combination bound to gain a lot of attention from the public. Therefore accomplishing its objective of reaching to as many different people as possible. The only issue with the poster is that its main message, or what it is trying to raise awareness to, is not present in the poster. There is no sentence which says that lung cancer although the deadliest, has the least amounts of funding. For people to get that information they are forced to visit the website, but the posters compensate this downside by making the audience curious enough that the probability of them visiting the website is much higher.

An Introduction

Source: mrhensler.com

Public Service Announcements are a crucial means of informing and making people aware of topics and situations of great importance. They have to be quick, direct and immediately grab the audience's attention, all of this is done by using language in specific ways to achieve those results.

Whenever there is a matter of urgency or great importance in which people are unaware of a corporation or the government, distributes messages in different medias which inform the people. These messages come on the radio, television and print. They are known as Public Service Announcements, and are broadcasted without charge by the different channels and have the objective of raising awareness, and informing, the population about a certain health or safety hazard. This type of message has no target audience, in fact its main objective is to reach as many people as it possibly can, hence the different types of media used to distribute them. Focusing in the media of print PSAs have to use language in a certain way to be effective, this includes short sentences, commonly used or informal language and the design of the poster and font has to be simple as well as distinguishable in a way that will attract the attention of people walking by it. I will compare three different Public Service Announcement posters which are from two different centuries. Two are from the period of the Second World War and were used by the British government to calm and reassure the British people during a period of fear and violence. The other is a poster for the Lung Cancer Alliance which was recently release in New York City, it uses some of the techniques previously mentioned to attract and inform people.

This analysis will show how the two different posters use the same technique to achieve similar results from the audience, as well as how the British poster even though was used quite a long time ago has recently regained its fame and popularity.

Anti-Smoking PSA
Source: coloribus.com

Anti Drug PSA Poster
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