I'm not calm about...
Apr 2, 2015 at 4:42am Edited
is this trademarked or where and why did it all of the sudden become the "saying" ?
I just hate when anyone tells me to "calm down". Nothing makes me freak out more!!!
Exceprts from: http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-fight
In 2000, Stuart Manley, the owner of Barter Books of Alnwick, Northumberland, found a folded poster at the bottom of a box of random books he’d bought at auction. (Barter Books is a very famous and beautiful bookstore housed in an old train station. Many features of the original station have been left intact, and there are model trains running around the shop on a high track above the bookshelves.) Mary Manley, Stuart’s wife and partner in the shop, took a liking to the poster. It was framed and displayed behind the till. Right away people started trying to buy it off them: Not For Sale, they were told. But the demand wore the Manleys down, and eventually they ordered 500 reproductions through a local print shop. This was in 2001.
....
Fast-forward to late March of this year, when unbelievable prat Mark Coop, an ex-TV producer whose credits include “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, succeeded in obtaining an EU trademark for the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Coop had established a business selling Keep Calm products online in 2007 (and, as Megan Hustad noted here a couple years back, he was soon doing so well he brought in his mom to help fulfill orders). The Telegraph and others reported that Coop’s UK trademark application was denied, but the EU one breezed right through. Soon after the EU trademark was granted, he started enjoining his competitors from selling Keep Calm merchandise on eBay, apparently by notifying eBay that he was the trademark owner and asking them to refuse access to certain vendors, as blocked competitor Kerry Cade explained to the BBC last week (starting at 1:00).
....
The article has a rendering of the other two WWII slogans in the series: “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” and “Freedom is in Peril: Defend It With All Your Might.”
In 2000, Stuart Manley, the owner of Barter Books of Alnwick, Northumberland, found a folded poster at the bottom of a box of random books he’d bought at auction. (Barter Books is a very famous and beautiful bookstore housed in an old train station. Many features of the original station have been left intact, and there are model trains running around the shop on a high track above the bookshelves.) Mary Manley, Stuart’s wife and partner in the shop, took a liking to the poster. It was framed and displayed behind the till. Right away people started trying to buy it off them: Not For Sale, they were told. But the demand wore the Manleys down, and eventually they ordered 500 reproductions through a local print shop. This was in 2001.
....
Fast-forward to late March of this year, when unbelievable prat Mark Coop, an ex-TV producer whose credits include “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, succeeded in obtaining an EU trademark for the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Coop had established a business selling Keep Calm products online in 2007 (and, as Megan Hustad noted here a couple years back, he was soon doing so well he brought in his mom to help fulfill orders). The Telegraph and others reported that Coop’s UK trademark application was denied, but the EU one breezed right through. Soon after the EU trademark was granted, he started enjoining his competitors from selling Keep Calm merchandise on eBay, apparently by notifying eBay that he was the trademark owner and asking them to refuse access to certain vendors, as blocked competitor Kerry Cade explained to the BBC last week (starting at 1:00).
....
The article has a rendering of the other two WWII slogans in the series: “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” and “Freedom is in Peril: Defend It With All Your Might.”
Apr 2, 2015 at 6:08am Edited
I'm pretty sure that is correct. Somehow it got resurrected in recent months and is now everywhere (and also being bastardized and 'humorized' as well.)Hahaha said:
I thought it was a slogan promoted by the British govt during WW2
The saying has been popular for years now, but the overuse and bastardized versions are wearing thin.
Apr 2, 2015 at 8:49am Edited
Yeah, I put up a small KCACO plaque in my office about 4 years ago, and now I'm just kind of embarassed by it. But I'll just KCACO.
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It is everywhere and is getting seriously annoying.