Keep calm and read this column

How a British WWII propaganda poster obtained modern meme status

The first encounter prompts a smirk, maybe even a chuckle: "Keep calm and call mom".

The second sighting, "Keep calm and eat a cupcake," raises questions about overexposure.

By the third, fourth and fifth encounters— "Keep calm and go shopping," "Keep calm and love cats" —you start experiencing dueling senses of immunity and hypersensitivity to this once-charming, now-ubiquitous slogan.

The original phrase, of course, is "Keep calm and carry on," coined by the British government's Ministry of Information in 1939 as part of an effort to boost morale at the outset of World War II. An agency called His Majesty's Stationery Office designed three propaganda posters, all featuring King George VI's crown, to be displayed around Great Britain. "Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory" and "Freedom is in peril" were plastered throughout the public arena.

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I found this article interesting since a few weekends ago I came across this clever tweak on the popular phrase on Lou Malnati's Pizza's facebook page: