Month: March 2018

Posters

The Backstory of “Keep Calm and Carry On” Posters

By Delphine Hirasuna |

“Keep Calm and Carry On” is the most famous British World War II poster that few people knew about until a half century later. Virtually all of the 2.5 million copies printed in anticipation of plastering the UK with them when war broke out, never saw the light of day.

It all started in the spring of 1939, as England braced itself for a German invasion. To prepare citizens for that inevitability, the UK Ministry of Information (MOI) formed a Home Publicity Committee made up of civil servants, volunteer academics, publicists and publishers to plan a campaign urging citizens to keep a “stiff upper lip.” The committee met weekly over lunch hour and suggested various slogans — e.g, “England Is Prepared” and “We’re Going to See This Through.” The committee proposed a series of seven or more morale-boosting posters, which the Treasury vetoed due to cost, giving them less than half of their requested budget. Ultimately, the MOI settled on three poster messages: “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory”; “Freedom Is In Peril, Defend It With All Your Might,” and “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Someone suggested “Keep Calm, Don’t Panic,” but that was nixed.

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Sustainability

Tackling the Plastic Problem, One Supermarket Aisle at a Time

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Plastic may be cheap and convenient, but there is mounting evidence that it is killing the planet and all the inhabitants on it. According to Ecowatch, today there are 500 times more pieces of microplastic in the sea than there are stars in our galaxy. By 2050, it is estimated that there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times. Plastic constitutes about 90 percent of the trash floating on the ocean’s surface. One million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year from plastics in the ocean. Plastic chemicals can be absorbed by humans too – 93 percent of Americans age 6 and older test positive for BPA, a harmful hormone-altering plastic chemical. Some retailers are not giving up in despair, but are addressing the disposable plastics problem one aisle at a time.

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Lacoste Alligator Yields to Endangered Species

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Lacoste’s familiar white polo shirts is swapping out its signature embroidered green alligator logo temporarily for ten endangered animals to raise awareness and help conservation efforts. The limited edition “Save Our Species” polos made their debut at the recent Paris Fashion Show, and include the Vaquita porpoise, Sumatran tiger, Anegada ground iguana, California condor, Kakapo parrot, Saola ox, Northern sportive lemur, Burmese roofed turtle, Javan rhino, and Cao-vit gibbon.

Created in partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN), the Save Our Species Lacoste shirts have been produced in very limited number – 1,775 in total. The number of shirts produced for each species corresponds with the population of each species still surviving in the wild. For instance, only 30 polos will be made featuring the Vaquita porpoise, and 67 for the Javan rhino. The extremely scarce polo shirts, costing roughly $183 each, will be available for as long as they last from ICUN’s Save Our Species site.