tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/posters-22220/articlesPosters – The Conversation2022-07-22T12:29:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864522022-07-22T12:29:30Z2022-07-22T12:29:30ZHow a 1989 poster became a fixture on the front lines in the battle over abortion rights<p>For abortion rights advocates, Barbara Kruger’s iconic feminist image “<a href="https://www.thebroad.org/art/barbara-kruger/untitled-your-body-battleground">Untitled (Your body is a battleground)</a>” remains as relevant today as when it was first released in 1989.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473">May 2, 2022, leak</a> of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s anti-abortion draft decision, <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2022-04-24%202022-05-08&geo=US&q=barbara%20kruger">Google searches for Kruger spiked</a>. <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2022-06-17%202022-07-01&geo=US&q=barbara%20kruger">Searches spiked again</a> after the official ruling was released on June 24, 2022. </p>
<p>A leading pioneer of <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/pop-art/appropriation/">appropriation art</a>, Kruger leveraged her skills as a graphic designer to make works of art from readily available images. Art critic Isabelle Graw <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20711456">describes Kruger’s signature style</a> as “grainy black-and-white photographs with a typical typeface (Futura Bold Italic) in red-and-black blocks of text-like color fields.”</p>
<p>Riffing off <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/culture-magazines/1980s-print-culture">the print culture of the 1980s and 1990s</a>, Kruger’s art combined images and text to parody advertisements that used a <a href="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*kFkcrWgXg8-a-BwZBy9bgA.png">second-person voice</a> to entice potential consumers. </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.thebroad.org/art/barbara-kruger/untitled-your-body-battleground">Untitled (Your body is a battleground)</a>,” Kruger slightly altered the photograph of the original sitter. By splitting this subject’s face into positive and negative halves, Kruger shows how anti-abortion activists cut battle lines into women’s bodies.</p>
<p>Kruger’s original poster has seamlessly transitioned to social media, inspiring a new generation of media-savvy reproductive justice artists and activists.</p>
<h2>Dissemination and evolution</h2>
<p>In 1989, the Supreme Court reviewed a 1986 case related to a Missouri law that hindered access to abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. The law also restricted the use of public funds and buildings for abortion counseling and procedures. Abortion-rights activists responded with a planned <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/09/us/abortion-marchers-gather-in-capital.html">March for Women’s Lives</a> in Washington. </p>
<p>In the early morning hours before the march, Kruger and some of her students illegally plastered New York City with flyers featuring “Untitled (Your body is a battleground).” The original flyer provided logistical information about the march and details about the upcoming Supreme Court case.</p>
<p>Kruger <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj75h.18">also used the same image</a> in another 1989 poster. That version, commissioned by the French government on the bicentennial of the French Revolution, appeared with the French text “Savoir C'est Pouvoir,” which translates to “Knowledge is Power” and recalls the <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/consciousness-raising-groups-and-the-womens-movement/">consciousness-raising</a> strategies of 1970s feminism. </p>
<p>Since then, variations of “Untitled (Your body is a battleground)” have been exhibited in various forms and languages in museums and galleries. They’ve also popped up on mugs, T-shirts and other merchandise.</p>
<p>Kruger has been involved in some of this dissemination, including the 1990 billboard variation commissioned by The Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts, which installed it <a href="https://publicartfund.tumblr.com/post/26832733541/barbara-kruger-multi-year-public-art-fund-artist">adjacent to an anti-abortion billboard</a> in Columbus.</p>
<p>In 2019, in response to <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2019/12/state-policy-trends-2019-wave-abortion-bans-some-states-are-fighting-back">continued legislative assaults on abortion rights</a>, Kruger made a <a href="https://youtu.be/1HXJ2eYCnxI">video version</a> of the “Battleground” image, updating the original work to reflect the proliferation of digital media. After the leak of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, she again altered it for the cover of the May 9, 2022, issue of New York Magazine.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1523636371470045184"}"></div></p>
<p>Regarding the revised New York Magazine cover text – “Who becomes a ‘MURDERER’ in post-Roe America?” – Kruger <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/barbara-kruger-body-battleground-2112283">predicted</a> that the ruling will create a dilemma: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The issue of who gets charged with ‘murder’ will be a challenge for the right to finesse … Is the ‘little lady’ capable of making that decision, or does the doctor or medical facility do the time or worse because the woman can’t possibly be capable of making the decision on her own?” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Activists take the baton</h2>
<p>For decades, activists have relied on Kruger’s aesthetics. In some cases, they’ve repurposed her actual artwork. In others, they’ve simply borrowed stylistic elements. </p>
<p>In 1991 and 1992, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw produced <a href="https://obieg.pl/en/209-barbara-kruger-s-poster-and-the-frontline-in-the-culture-war">a Polish-language version</a>. When the Polish courts <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/world/europe/poland-tribunal-abortions.html">outlawed</a> nearly all abortions in 2020, the TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin launched another poster campaign. In 2021, the organization Sanitation First India released a “Krugerizing” selfie filter for Instagram to promote <a href="https://origin.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/52935/1/star-in-your-own-barbara-kruger-artwork-to-support-menstrual-education">Menstrual Hygiene Day</a>.</p>
<p>Recent responses to Dobbs v. Jackson draw on Kruger’s characteristic text-and-image dissemination tactics. </p>
<p>In New York City, anonymous activists have twice hung large <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/27/1107717283/abortion-rights-green-symbol">green banners</a> with text in white, capital, sans serif letters. They draped a 30-foot-tall sign proclaiming “ABORTION = LIBERTY” from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and <a href="https://twitter.com/OskarNupia/status/1540434969562071041">later from the Manhattan Bridge</a>. Less than a week later, <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/news/activists-cover-anti-abortion-billboard-with-pro-choice-message-in-detroit-30456163">a banner with a similar aesthetic</a> covered a anti-abortion billboard in Detroit, asserting, “<a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/news/activists-cover-anti-abortion-billboard-with-pro-choice-message-in-detroit-30456163">WE WILL AID & ABET ABORTION</a>.” Visually, the work borrows directly from Kruger’s “<a href="https://i0.wp.com/totally-la.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/who-buys-the-con.jpg?resize=960%2C641&ssl=1">Untitled (Who Buys The Con?)</a>.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1542941337128951808"}"></div></p>
<p>Like Kruger, artist Alicia Eggert has also chosen a medium associated with advertising for her activist artwork. In her installation piece “<a href="https://news.cvad.unt.edu/faculty-eggert-alicia-ours-sign">OURS</a>,” she uses pink neon signs that flash three phrases: “OUR BODIES,” “OUR FUTURES” and “OUR ABORTIONS.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/02/04/abortion-rights-planned-parenthood-neon-art-alicia-eggert">She installed it</a> on the steps of the Supreme Court building in January 2022 to mark the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the work continues to travel around the country.</p>
<h2>The importance of public art</h2>
<p>Kruger’s images inspire viewers around the world because they exist outside of the elite spaces of museums and galleries. </p>
<p>Writer and poet Adam Heardman cites the importance of situating political art in <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas/#EarDevHabIntPubSphRea">the public sphere</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.proquest.com/artbibliographies/docview/2509694831/abstract/F9EB8B918F3F40DDPQ/4">Heardman writes</a> that Kruger saw the concentration of corporate power as a direct threat to individuals, particularly women and minorities. To resist corporate America’s efforts to create a single, homogeneous consumer, she wrested advertising tactics from them to quickly and effectively communicate the hopes and fears of marginalized people, enabling the voices of those demanding justice to go viral.</p>
<p>Given the battle ahead to regain the right to abortion, we expect many more artists and activists to draw from Kruger’s work for inspiration, strategy and strength.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sign with black and white image of woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473927/original/file-20220713-9316-rrzb69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester holds a sign featuring ‘Star Wars’ character Princess Leia made in the style of Kruger’s iconic ‘Battleground’ poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-carrie-fisher-as-princess-leia-is-displayed-news-photo/1240707306?adppopup=true">Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Barbara Kruger’s ‘Untitled (Your body is a battleground)’ has seamlessly transitioned to social media, inspiring a new generation of media-savvy artists and activists.John Corso-Esquivel, Associate Professor of Art History, Davidson CollegeLia Rose Newman, Curator and Director of the Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/956192018-05-11T14:55:45Z2018-05-11T14:55:45ZMay 1968: the posters that inspired a movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216507/original/file-20180426-175074-15cnam8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C114%2C1523%2C1064&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/12533165@N05/1345676945/in/photostream/">jonandsamfreecycle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The uprisings that took hold of France in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/1968-50th-anniversary-48869">May 1968</a> provided a blueprint for the kind of widespread social unrest capable of unifying students and factory workers. Beginning with protests over university reform, action escalated quickly to widespread strikes and occupations. The country’s leaders feared an actual revolution could be about to take place. </p>
<p>The movement also produced an important visual language for protest that still resonates half a century later. While often aesthetically crude in design, posters were pasted up in the streets calling for solidarity in the fight against capitalism.</p>
<p>Emanating from the printing room of Paris’ École des Beaux Arts, a group calling itself Atelier Populaire (“Popular Workshop”) subsequently produced the posters. They called them “weapons in the service of the struggle”. This extensive series depicted the tools of the proletariat, including the hammer, the spanner, the paintbrush, and reclaimed them as objects of power rather than subservience.</p>
<p>To create their posters, the group used a production technique – screen print – that was as immediate as the messages they sought to communicate through the work. It harnessed the kind of grass roots energy that is evident in thousands of hastily-produced banners and placards that continue to challenge the status quo around the globe today.</p>
<p>Atelier Populaire’s approach was to work in an egalitarian way. Each print was attributed to the collective rather than the individual designer. Its approach remains a veritable touchstone for those whose work and activism is driven by disillusion and disenfranchisement with the current system – especially those representing organisations which work anonymously to highlight their grievances.</p>
<p>The output is referenced in a huge number of works from protests movements that have taken place since 1968. Its influence is clear throughout high profile exhibitions of political materials such as <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/disobedient-objects/how-to-guides/">Disobedient Objects</a> and <a href="https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/hope-to-nope-graphics-and-politics-2008-18">From Hope to Nope</a> in London and <a href="https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/get-action/">Get With the Action</a> in San Francisco.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216519/original/file-20180426-175058-1r2kl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Be young and shut up’: a poster from the movement on display in Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this reverence really shouldn’t be the case. Atelier Populaire was clear that it did not want its work to be displayed, or even kept for posterity. “The struggle,” it argued, “is of such primary importance.”</p>
<p>However, these political posters – supposedly mere ephemera – retain power well beyond their original intentions. Perhaps that’s because some of the issues they addressed have refused to go away. In 1968, a single-colour print depicting an officer wielding a baton behind a shield emblazoned with a lightning bolt-like “SS”, raised questions about the heavy-handed police response to protests. </p>
<p>But the same is true today. The image still works as a criticism of police brutality and its associations with totalitarianism at a time when campaigners are seeking an official inquiry into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-files-add-weight-to-calls-for-battle-of-orgreave-inquiry-85697">Battle of Orgreave</a> and organisations such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/black-lives-matter-14463">Black Lives Matter</a> highlight cases of police aggression in the US. As one famous design reminds us: “La lutte continue” (the struggle continues). </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"992137445952155654"}"></div></p>
<h2>Ink remains</h2>
<p>Still, works on paper may be viewed as a relic from a bygone age. Even in the late-1960s, Atelier Populaire had declared that its posters “should not be taken as the final outcome of an experience, but as an inducement for finding, through contact with the masses, new levels of action both on the cultural and the political plane”. Writing in 2011’s <a href="https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/beauty-is-in-the-street/">Beauty is in the Street</a> – an essential and comprehensive overview of material by Atelier Populaire – the group’s co-founder Philippe Vermès indeed suggested that “it’d be different now if we ran the same scenario through current times. Twitter and Facebook and cell phones didn’t exist in May ’68”.</p>
<p>Lucienne Roberts, one of the curators of the <a href="https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/hope-to-nope-graphics-and-politics-2008-18">Hope to Nope</a> exhibition in London, seemingly disagrees that those means of communication necessarily require updating. “I can’t help but think print is the best way to disseminate ideas free of surveillance,” she told me.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218595/original/file-20180511-135202-ogl8w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A famous poster from the time depicts a police officer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And that is an all-important point in 2018. Yes, digital platforms may be seen as having more reach, but as allegations continue to circulate regarding the online tactics of everything from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43093390">Russian troll farms</a> to data companies such as <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/exposed-undercover-secrets-of-donald-trump-data-firm-cambridge-analytica">Cambridge Analytica</a>, it’s not just democracy but also dissent that is in danger of being subverted; hijacked, even. And while a trending hashtag or some anonymous <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9a3g97/block-4chan-to-stop-the-alt-right-from-spreading-racist-memes-scientists-say">4chan-sourced meme</a> might then appear to be the bleeding edge of a modern political movement, the lack of transparency and, indeed, physicality offers no indication of the how genuine or widely held any particular affiliation may be.</p>
<p>But 50 years after the ink dried on that very first call for solidarity – “Usines Universités Union” (Factories, Universities, Union) – it’s difficult to find a medium that more reliably encapsulates a true demonstration of discord and resistance than that of the political poster.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Cookney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Atelier Populaire produced many of the iconic images of the student and worker movement that gripped France 50 years ago.Daniel Cookney, Lecturer in Graphic Design, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/745812017-03-24T04:41:05Z2017-03-24T04:41:05ZFrom waterfalls to snowy forests, Egyptian posters show what exotic looks like from the desert<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161777/original/image-20170321-5395-1v25k0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not what most Egyptians see when they look out their windows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://vbat.org/spip.php?article644">Vincent Battesti</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Egypt is a tourist destination famous for its archaeological sites, natural beauty and ancient culture. But fascination can be found even in more mundane places, as in an unusual form of wall art ubiquitous in Egyptian apartments and small businesses.</p>
<p>Not quite photographs, the posters are photoshopped representations of numerous natural environments or differing architectural styles, juxtaposed in improbable ways. These made-in-Egypt <em>mandhar ṭabīɛī</em>, or “natural landscapes” – which range in size from small, 50-by-35 cm framed images to wallpaper-scaled – reveal a particularly Egyptian form of exoticism. </p>
<p>All the posters illustrating this article <a href="http://vbat.org/spip.php?article644">come from my 2009 fieldwork in Cairo</a>, purchased for just a few Egyptian pounds (less than $US1). These idealised images are displayed across the country, in private indoor spaces, coffee shops, restaurants, hairdressers, and rural and urban areas, but are especially common in the arid Sinai countryside, Libyan desert and west Mediterranean coast.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161622/original/image-20170320-9114-1vvf8rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A lighthouse borrowed from Scandinavia enhances this 2009 poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://vbat.org/spip.php?article644">Maktaba al-Maḥaba/Vincent Battesti</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The posters depict a version of the “exotic” not centred on ordinary date palms, flat fields or mundane sand dunes – all clichés used in tourist catalogues to attract visitors to Egypt. Instead, they express a more local aesthetic form, far removed from Western standards. </p>
<h2>Nature’s Photoshop artisans</h2>
<p>I at first incorrectly assumed that these posters were cheap Chinese products filling a niche Egyptian market. In fact, they are designed and produced in the Shubra neighbourhood of Cairo or the nearby suburbs. Maktaba al-Maḥaba, a major Coptic Christian bookstore (مكتبة المحبة القبطية), distributes their catalogues across Egypt (and apparently throughout the North Africa region, as I have since noticed some posters in Tunisia’s Jerid oasis and the Moroccan Rif). </p>
<p>The main design tool in these Egyptian cut-and-paste compositions is clearly Photoshop (or a similar software). The craftsmen show great mastery of pasting, fusion, blurring, cropping, scaling, duplication and other techniques, creating on their computer monitors three-dimensional scenes encompassing all the best of different continents – even if it means implausible coexistences and genuine problems with scale. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161621/original/image-20170320-9108-1tfx97a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Though humans are rare in these posters, here we see the known Copt saint Tamav Irene (1936-2006) and the Pope Pope Cyril VI (1902-1971).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maktaba al-Maḥaba/Vincent Battesti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artisans of the Maktaba al-Maḥaba shoppe, who don’t hesitate to cater to the Christian community by printing Jesus Christ or the late Pope Shenouda III in these bucolic settings, undoubtedly inherited the Coptic iconographic know-how behind the store’s endless production of pious images depicting triumphant saints, benevolent popes and monks, and suffering martyrs. </p>
<h2>Snow, rainforests, Christs and Chinese pagodas</h2>
<p>Water is everywhere in these posters, its presence seemingly required by consumers. It may be a sea, a lake, a river (sometimes with fanciful route), or, of course, those elaborate fountains.</p>
<p>The other prerequisite is greenery and a rich palette of florals – regardless, again, of botanical, agronomic or ecological incongruities and impossibilities. The posters are saturated with garden motifs, leaving some space for the sky but very little room for humans or animals. </p>
<p>Architectural elements reflect not just Islamic motifs (columns, ceramics) but also styles quite foreign to Egypt, such as Californian villas, Chinese pagodas and Scandinavian lighthouses. Other exotic landscapes include reproduction photos of snowy Swiss mountains with equatorial rainforest waterfalls, punctuated by the palace of Versailles or other Renaissance-style building, plus Islamic ponds with lush floral arrangements – and perhaps a yacht or ice floe in the background. </p>
<p>Sometimes, there’s a photographic enlargement of an English garden in its autumn glory. But, in general, natural nature is not enough, and the thirst for exoticism triumphs. </p>
<h2>What is exoticism? What is ‘natural’?</h2>
<p>These posters are prominently displayed across Egypt, offering visual delight in gas stations and local eateries. In Siwa, a remote oasis in the Libyan desert of Egypt, I spotted them in the <em>marbūɛa</em> (living room) of houses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161619/original/image-20170320-9121-1k9i3dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The living room interior in a newly built home in the Siwa Oasis of Egypt’s Libyan Desert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vincent Battesti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Siwa inhabitants do not see <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00004050">their landscape as particularly original</a> or interesting. Meanwhile, tourists who come to Siwa do not focus on the area’s true agro-ecosystem but look beyond at a more familiar scene, the <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00569247">“already known” oasis of their Western imagery</a>, an iconic Eden landscape that conforms with <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00350921e">their own perception of exoticism</a>.</p>
<p>This observation supports <a href="http://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/654">social anthropologist Gérard Lenclud, who said</a> that landscape is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“the product of the view of someone who is ‘foreigner’ to it. Man doesn’t think of elaborating a landscaped representation of the place to which he is attached and where he works or lives.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Exotic is always found elsewhere, beyond the horizon.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161775/original/image-20170321-5408-1k87c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fountains are recurrent elements of Egyptian posters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maktaba al-Maḥaba/Vincent Battesti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What does this reveal about Egyptians’ ideal of nature? In accumulating images from other eras and places, these posters create an exotic space located somewhere between the nostalgia for a lost Eden and the promise of Paradise. The inclusion of Islamic golden-age gardens, Swiss chalets and Atlantic lighthouses also reveals the attractiveness of a globalised world. </p>
<p>The amassing of elements speaks for itself: saturation is probably the key concept of <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00842075">popular aesthetics, part of the pursuit of sensorial experience</a>. The beholders of these <em>mandhar ṭabīɛī</em> constructions do not distinguish between “natural” nature and artificial renditions. In interviews I found that Siwa residents either do not notice this phoney flavour or do not care about its inauthenticity.</p>
<h2>Dreams of lush gardens</h2>
<p>What Egyptian consumers do clearly prefer is that the posters’ iconic jumble should be organised according to repeating patterns of three main elements: flora, water, and architecture. Some of these elements reappear from poster to poster – the same fountain can be recognised stretched a bit here, or with a different basin there. </p>
<p>I could unwittingly track the biography of some key patterns as I vainly sought evidence of a similar craft around the world. <a href="https://medihal.archives-ouvertes.fr/medihal-00455926">The mill</a> sometimes seen in the midst of a lush tropical vegetation, for example, is “sampled” from a poster entitled “<a href="http://www.babcocksp.com/gristmill.html">Glade Creek Grist Mill, Babcock State Park, West Virginia</a>” (credited to Robert Glusic). The original is an already romanticised depiction of a tourist attraction in Babcock State Park in West Virginia, United States.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161625/original/image-20170320-9147-1ve9vhe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This West Virginia waterfall is sampled in some Egyptian posters, including the one in the Siwa home, shown above.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot-AllPosters.com/Vincent Battesti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Egypt, a simple reproduction of this image does not suffice. That distinguishes its popular aesthetic tradition from Europe’s, where, according to Jean-Claude Chamboredon in the collective book, <a href="http://www.persee.fr/doc/rfsoc_0035-2969_1987_num_28_2_2409">Protecting Nature: history and ideology</a>, “the countryside as an idyllic social setting results from a long process of progressive disappearance of the rural proletariat … since the second half of the 19th century”. </p>
<p>The French countryside has become an ideal, neutral space whose very construction (via a history of social struggles) is erased and replaced with a narrative of an authentic, traditional and beautiful seasonally-changing subject. (I recall now the plywood-mounted poster of a continental forest that my parents proudly displayed in our living room in Le Havre, France.)</p>
<p>Not so in North Africa and Egypt. In deserts, it seems, the people dream of lush gardens and Italianate palaces that allow them to be swept away, if only for a moment, from arid native soil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Battesti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pastiche-style poster art ubiquitous in Egyptian houses and businesses reveals how locals imagine far-off landscapes, idealise nature and define beauty.Vincent Battesti, Chercheur CNRS en anthropologie sociale (au Musée de l'Homme), Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/586512016-07-11T19:38:14Z2016-07-11T19:38:14ZExplainer: the terror behind Keep Calm And Carry On<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121454/original/image-20160506-5669-gnluyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keep Calm And Carry On: the mug</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hope-in-sight/8017403382/">hope-in-sight/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There can be few people who haven’t run into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On">Keep Calm And Carry On</a> in some form. The now familiar red-and-white image has been turned into fridge magnets, key rings, mugs, tea towels, phone cases, cushions – almost any product where it will fit.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121455/original/image-20160506-5677-1bje27f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original Keep Calm survivor at Barter Books, Alnwick.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neil Theasby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It has spread further by being <a href="http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/">remixed</a> and <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/keep-calm-and-carry-on">memeified</a>: Keep Calm And Drink Tea, Now Panic And Freak Out, <a href="http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=1526">Change Words And Be Hilarious</a>. It’s a cultural – and marketing – phenomenon. But while it is well-known that Keep Calm originated as British wartime propaganda, the original context is rarely appreciated. Rather than merely being a nostalgic relic of a reassuring past, Keep Calm should be seen as a symbol of terror.</p>
<p>As well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/keep-calm-and-carry-on-conquered-the-world-but-it-was-too-mundane-for-world-war-ii-28519">the elegance and simplicity of its design</a>, Keep Calm’s popularity draws on an ideal of stoicism traditionally linked with the British national character. It embodies the “<a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/keep-a-stiff-upper-lip.html">stiff upper lip</a>” of the British people in standing up to Hitler in the Second World War. </p>
<p>In particular, this meant enduring <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz">the Blitz</a>, the German bombing of London and other cities between September 1940 and May 1941, with cheerfulness and courage – the so-called <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11213968">Blitz spirit</a>. Despite the terrible suffering and mass casualties <a href="http://bombsight.org">inflicted by Hitler’s Luftwaffe</a>, Britain did not give in; instead it survived to play a key role in defeating Nazi Germany.</p>
<p>In fact, the Keep Calm poster had nothing to do with the Blitz at all, as most copies were destroyed before mass bombing began. Its origins lie in the prewar expectation of bombing casualties far higher than the British ever suffered in reality.</p>
<h2>The expected holocaust</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129986/original/image-20160711-24079-1btlx1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">emilydickinsonridesabmx</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The theory of “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=f9-XCwAAQBAJ">the knock-out blow from the air</a>,” widespread in the 1920s and 1930s, predicted that the next war would begin with shattering air raids by thousands of bombers. The great cities such as London would be destroyed by incendiary bombs and poison gas, causing such intense suffering that morale would collapse.</p>
<p>Millions would flee into the countryside to escape the raids, and the economy would collapse. Surrender would inevitably follow within weeks or even days. The idea of the knock-out blow was extrapolated from the limited experience of <a href="http://www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/">the first strategic bombing campaigns of the First World War</a>. Many were also determined to avoid the shocking number of deaths of young men over four years of stalemate and slaughter in the trenches of the Western Front.</p>
<p>Of course, the catch, if the knock-out blow theory was accurate, was that instead of soldiers it would be civilians who would bear the brunt of the death and destruction in the next war.</p>
<p>By 1939, <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-Civil-Social/UK-Civil-Social-1.html">the scale of the expected attack</a> meant that the British people were facing the prospect of around 2.1 million casualties in the first two months of war, perhaps as many as 170,000 in the first 24 hours alone. </p>
<p>The reality was very different, because the knock-out blow theory was wrong. The Luftwaffe did not attack London immediately upon the outbreak of war, and while 40,000 British civilians were killed in the Blitz, this suffering was spread out over seven months, rather than concentrated in a few weeks. </p>
<p>As terrible as it was, <a href="http://airminded.org/2008/05/17/the-expected-holocaust/">the Blitz was nothing compared to the knock-out blow</a> that was feared before the war. A generation later, former prime minister Harold Macmillan recalled in 1966 that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We thought of air warfare in 1938 rather as people think of nuclear warfare today.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123339/original/image-20160520-10353-zi195k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keep Calm and friends: the three posters designed by the Ministry of Information in 1939.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from vintageposterblog.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Keep calm, but why?</h2>
<p>The point of the Keep Calm poster was not that it was believed to represent an innate British trait; instead, the fear was that the working classes in particular were all too likely to panic and riot after an intense bombing campaign.</p>
<p>In the summer of 1939, as war with Germany seemed increasingly likely, <a href="https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/06/27/keep-calm-and-carry-on-the-compromise-behind-the-slogan/">Ministry of Information planners designed the Keep Calm poster</a> in order to stiffen morale in the event of just such an emergency. Nearly 2.5 million copies were printed. But <a href="http://drbexl.co.uk/2009/04/05/1939-3-posters/">unlike two other propaganda posters</a> created at the same time, Keep Calm was never publicly displayed on a large scale, because the mass bombing raids that were expected at the start of the war never came. </p>
<p>In April 1940, with the British people having adjusted to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War">the Phoney War</a> and no sign of an impending aerial apocalypse, the vast majority of the Keep Calm posters were pulped and recycled, with only a few making their way into public view. </p>
<p>In 2000, one of these was found in <a href="http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/">a secondhand bookshop in Northumberland</a>, and this copy eventually launched the modern obsession with this previously obscure piece of propaganda.</p>
<p>Why does all this matter? Even though <a href="http://vintageposterblog.com/2011/07/04/what-a-carry-on/">the origins of Keep Calm are now well-documented</a>, it is still commonly <a href="http://janetsfox.com/the-blitz-keep-calm-and-carry-on/">associated with the Blitz</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/08/keep-calm-and-carry-on-posters-austerity-ubiquity-sinister-implications">recent Guardian article</a> even claimed that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The specific purpose of the poster was to stiffen resolve in the event of a Nazi invasion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This mistakes the fears of wartime 1940 – when an invasion was very much a possibility – with those of prewar 1939 – when it was barely even considered. But then, in many ways the war that the British actually fought bore little resemblance to the war they expected.</p>
<p>Keep Calm should not be seen as a reassuring affirmation of a supposedly traditional British coolness under pressure. Rather, it’s evidence of a desperate attempt to maintain order in the face of casualties on a scale that might end British civilisation. Kitsch merchandising it may be now, but Keep Calm was first the product of an age of terror.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Holman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Keep Calm and Carry On is now a pop cultural phenomenon, symbolising the famed British ‘stiff upper lip’. But rather than being a nostalgic relic of a reassuring past, Keep Calm should be seen as a symbol of terror.Brett Holman, Lecturer in History, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/604712016-06-14T11:41:05Z2016-06-14T11:41:05ZFrom Antony Gormley to Wolfgang Tillmans, artists’ Remain posters leave something to be desired<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126357/original/image-20160613-29238-pemzp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bob & Roberta Smith.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BSIE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Artists have risen to the challenge of making posters for political motive throughout history. Now we approach a referendum that could divide Britain from the EU and change the face of Europe; an important enough issue to raise the creative juices if ever there was one. Accordingly, contemporary artists and designers have been commissioned by <a href="http://www.strongerin.co.uk/art#FuMuvV7iKU8JHAlT.97">Britain Stronger in Europe</a> to create new works, a series of posters that can be seen adorning many a window. </p>
<p>The works are suitably varied. There’s a sanguine <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596109/BSIE__(AXEL_SCHEFFLER).pdf?1464596109">illustration</a> by Axel Scheffler, an intriguing but tasteful <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596079/BSIE__(ANTONY_GORMLEY).pdf?1464596079">drawing</a> by Antony Gormley, and a <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596315/BSIE__(MICHAEL_MCTIERNY).pdf?1464596315">painting</a> by Micheal Tierney that appeals in subject to the lowest common denominator in the debate: ease of holiday travel for those in Europe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126350/original/image-20160613-29241-vkg8k5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hols.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Tierney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, Jefferson Hack and Ferdinando Verderi, international gurus on creativity and collaboration, have taken the title of their retrospective book, <a href="https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2016/may/we-cant-do-this-alone-jefferson-hacks-new-book-looks-at-25-years-of-dazed-magazine/">We Can’t Do This Alone</a>, and rendered it as a drifting slice of text approaching a black void. While acknowledging the apt thrust of their philosophy on collaborative partnerships and how this relates to all structures of society including the EU, the <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596235/BSIE__(Jefferson_Hack_and_Ferdinando_Verderi)_2.pdf?1464596235">poster</a> itself is visually bland.</p>
<p>With colour entering the black bars of a two dimensional space, Eva Rothschild has gone for a <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596141/BSIE__(EVA_ROTHSCHILD).pdf?1464596141">dynamic and upfront statement</a> that has a clear retro feel, calling to mind the previous <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/25/britains-1975-europe-referendum-what-was-it-like-last-time">in-out national referendum in 1975</a>. The message and text is simple: vote Remain.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126307/original/image-20160613-12948-bylyg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Craig-Martin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.strongerin.co.uk/art#HTjLPkjYjs6mviP2.97">BSIE</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Michael Craig-Martin has opted for a similar effect with his <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596276/BSIE__(MICHAEL_CRAIG-MARTIN).pdf?1464596276">signature-style work</a>. Instantly recognisable as by the artist, it could well be a limited edition print. The light bulb is a typical object from Craig-Martin’s repertory of shapes, tinged with environmental concerns, hinting at the widespread ramifications this referendum will have in all areas of policy.</p>
<p>Ewan Mitchel and Wolfgang Tillmans, on the other hand, compel us to think about wider issues. Mitchel references the unity of Europe that has been established for the past 60 years, his black and white <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/in/pages/6612/attachments/original/1464596200/BSIE__(EWAN_MITCHELL).pdf?1464596200">mosaic landscape</a> mingling awkwardly with yellow text. </p>
<p>The first Tillmans poster (of two) is straightforward, an island illustrated by an aerial photograph of shoreline from a non-British looking landscape. We are not an island, he tells us, rightly compelling us to act if we are “in” and register to vote. This has proven to be crucial in the debate following the extension of voter registration after the online meltdown on June 7. Tillmans hits on the right message but seems to lack a visual interpretation of the issue, relying on cliché. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126305/original/image-20160613-29209-1ubz3z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wolfgang Tillmans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.strongerin.co.uk/art#HTjLPkjYjs6mviP2.97">BSIE</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Words, not images</h2>
<p>Unfortunately (from an artistic perspective), many of the posters hold little visual edge with an overreliance on text. Posters are also rarely viewed in isolation and need an image design that will catch the attention above the visual noise symptomatic of contemporary culture. </p>
<p>It’s a shame that the simple power of images isn’t capitalised on more. Our visual sophistication is arguably advanced – but there’s little evidence of this in these posters. Rankin is one of the few to deal with the issue visually, with a heart shaped union jack fragmented centrally by a dividing crack. But even here the end result is formal and uninspiring.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126354/original/image-20160613-29229-576xbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rankin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BSIE</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is no art without context: in a sense, all art is political. When it becomes directly about an issue the visualisation of that issue become paramount and the strengths of one artwork/design/poster against another will be tested by the implications and meanings of its constituent parts.</p>
<p>In 1978, German artist Hans Haacke created <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/haacke-a-breed-apart-t05206">A Breed Apart</a>. A reference to UK national car giant British Leyland’s involvement with apartheid South Africa, Haacke established a series of disturbing yet stylish juxtapositions of corporate advertising and military action shots. With multiple images, text and logos (with blazon infringement of corporate copyright), the complex messages hit home.</p>
<p>This was unabashedly political art at its best. In comparison, one is left reflecting that our contemporary posters against Brexit could perhaps have struck on the seriousness of the situation with more potency.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126320/original/image-20160613-29222-j3nhzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Axel Scheffler.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.strongerin.co.uk/art#HTjLPkjYjs6mviP2.97">BSIE</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the Britain Stronger in Europe commission, artists and designers have risen to the challenge conscious of their practice and profiles, of being true to their established voice and at the same time communicating an important political message. The artists seem to waver between their artistic identity and the need to get the message across. In deciding to opt for a poster design in their individual studio styles and make work that could become signed editions of 100, many of the posters are ineffective. They say more about the artist than the message. The effectiveness of the poster as political persuasion is therefore compromised. </p>
<p>The result of the referendum on June 23 will impact on our wider society and culture for many decades to come. While it is so encouraging to see the artists that have come out in support of the Remain campaign, the portfolio is mixed. An overreliance on established practice and varying levels of visual dynamic means that they may be overlooked when surrounded by other posters in the window of the local cafe as Britain contemplates how to vote next week.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The message lacks potency.Andrew Smith, Subject Leader for Fine Art, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/496342015-11-02T11:02:30Z2015-11-02T11:02:30ZLook what is being sold to kids when they are in school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100361/original/image-20151030-16507-18tbzqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How stuff gets sold to kids.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zac-attack/4010505926/in/photolist-77oTFU-4fzQi7-4EUfLL-grfFSJ-9Mo2Mm-a3Hu5W-7Fvh8L-7CoYhS-auX8UD-MQ4ww-rsyXc-7hhuhV-E1iZV-7k8RZA-totpe-23EEH-5oJid9-agbyQ3-8D79s8-dhXhye-399K1o-aCUYFk-kstFG-gGhkEK-das3oF-9FwxvQ-agbzho-omNvvU-3QEwB-gGgZhj-6NHJ-rsz9e-scoVP-6npouJ-gGgXr5-8gB6Lx-4mAV3D-771u18-5GnKke-ag8KN8-ag952F-i2hRNr-CTvnZ-gGhnMm-9REDzk-doPAbK-9bEWDy-bUSKwr-9TNUqq-9WV2Cu">Zac Zellers</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Students are greeted these days with a <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/ceru-home">barrage of marketing and advertising</a> as they enter the school year. And there is no let-up. The ads are all over.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00156.pdf">US Government Accountability Office</a> (GAO) found ads in corridors, on scoreboards and vending machines, and inserted in the curricula through supplementary educational materials. They were on school equipment (eg, uniforms, cups, water coolers, beverage cases, food display racks) and on school buses. Ads were also put out through school newspapers, yearbooks and the school radio stations.</p>
<p>What is the impact of such marketing on children? </p>
<p>Our book, <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475813616/Sold-Out-How-Marketing-in-School-Threatens-Children's-Well-Being-and-Undermines-their-Education">Sold Out</a>, details the results of our study of marketing and advertising to children in schools over the past 25 years. </p>
<p>We found that while schools often welcome them, marketing and advertising activities in schools threaten children’s psychological and physical well-being, as well as the integrity of their education.</p>
<h2>What is sold the most to children?</h2>
<p>Unhealthy food products are the most <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/national-survey-types-and-extent-marketing-foods-minimal-nutritional-value-schools">heavily marketed products in school</a>. </p>
<p>In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission reported that 48 major food and beverage companies marketing to children in the US <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/12/ftc-releases-follow-study-detailing-promotional-activities">spent US$149 million</a> on marketing to children in schools alone. </p>
<p>Soft-drink bottling companies, in particular, often enter into multi-year <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/schoolhouse-commercialism-2012">exclusive contracts</a> that bring product and branded vending machines, scoreboards, coolers and other paraphernalia into the schools. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy/MCPS_foodmarketing_report2008.pdf">2008 study</a> found that the average high school in Montgomery County, Maryland, had 21 vending machines – each one both selling the product and functioning as a lit-up billboard. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.une.edu/news/2012/study-une-researcher-michele-polacsek-finds-junk-food-marketing-still-widespread-maine-schools">Another</a> 2012 study found advertising for soft drinks and other “<a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/foods-minimal-nutritional-value">foods of minimal nutritional value</a>” in 85% of the high schools in Maine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100362/original/image-20151030-16514-1cx4t8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Advertising for soft drinks is very common in schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolflawlibrary/4771093139/in/photolist-8gB6Lx-6hgNNH-vg9KWn-5oJid9-wnAQd-wcnjjQ-8gB6Wn-kstFG-2RxLH4-vfZMVm-vg93wi-a3Hu5W-wd235H-vVppGJ-nyJfA-vVqiWd-vg1GtY-waFMQG-vVqzqE-3kCb81-7VM7TS-6dTBEv-vVoruo-vg4NSx-vg8ikt-wcZEfn-vgaDgr-vVosg1-7qpMVi-Dao9r-wckqEu-98NWmj-CTvnZ-vVmfj1-vVjp8q-4MV39g-4BzY5t-556oT6-7VM7e3-61kRcD-22msuN-2k1JSF-dnpBLj-vjYuCN-3hVe1g-7BQEKV-8gB6ZP-3LvLUX-waDVNQ-7VM6Nd">The Wolf Law Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Younger students, in schools without vending machines, routinely <a href="http://www.bridgingthegapresearch.org/research/terry-mcelrath2014_jamap/">receive free coupons</a> promoting food products.</p>
<p>Numerous studies demonstrate that food <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/11514/chapter/1">marketing influences children’s</a> food preferences, what young children ask their parents to buy for them and what older children buy for themselves. </p>
<p>Although no study ties any specific marketing campaign to poor health, it stands to reason that the more children are encouraged to eat foods that are unhealthy when consumed to excess, the more likely they are to suffer from metabolic syndrome, obesity and the host of illnesses associated with them.</p>
<h2>Impact of marketing</h2>
<p>In one way or another, all marketing promotes the idea that identity, fulfillment, self-expression and confidence are achieved through consumption. </p>
<p><a href="http://commercialfreechildhood.org/sites/default/files/kanner_corporatizedchild.pdf">When children are occupied with consumer-oriented activity</a> (shopping, for example, or thinking about products or fantasizing about purchases), they simply have less time and brain-space for other pursuits, such as creative thinking and play, family and friends, artistic endeavors, or spiritual practices.</p>
<p>Materialistic values have been linked to higher rates of such <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Born-to-Buy/Juliet-B-Schor/9780684870564">psychological problems</a> as anxiety, depression, psychological distress, chronic physical symptoms and lower self-esteem.</p>
<p>Marketing in schools can have other consequences as well. It can take up class time, contradict what children learn in their classes (particularly about proper nutrition) and create an environment that encourages them to uncritically accept sponsors’ points of view. </p>
<p>When children, for example, learn about “energy balance” from <a href="http://www.togethercounts.com/sites/togethercounts.com/files/thematic-unit/pdfs/PROGRAM_OVERVIEW_2014.pdf">curricular materials</a> provided by a food-industry-funded nonprofit organization, they are encouraged to accept the industry’s point of view that individuals are responsible for balancing their “calories in” and “calories out.” </p>
<p>Assumed in this point of view is that all food products are healthy in moderation; excluded is industry’s role in encouraging children to consume food products that are unhealthy when consumed to excess. </p>
<h2>Why do schools allow marketing?</h2>
<p>Given the threats posed by advertising and marketing in school, how is it possible that so many well-intentioned principals, district administrators and <a href="http://onevoice.pta.org/?p=5025">parent groups</a> are eager to embrace it? </p>
<p>It is possible that these stakeholders are unaware of the threats posed through marketing. People tend to <a href="http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/1/1.abstract">underestimate</a> the extent to which they are influenced by marketing messages. Many reason that <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/Schoolhouse-commercialism-2010">children are so exposed</a> to marketing in other settings that adding it in a school setting won’t matter in any appreciable way. </p>
<p>Even if stakeholders are aware of the potential harm marketing can do to children, the immediate need for school funding often overwhelms their concerns.</p>
<p>States have been <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/new-normal">cutting funding</a> to schools for quite some time now, and school districts across the nation are so fiscally stressed that they are ever more open to the enticements of corporate marketing campaigns, often soothingly billed as “school-business partnerships,” that <a href="http://www.commercialalert.org/PDFs/SchoolCommercialismReport_PC.pdf">promise</a> to yield extra cash. </p>
<p>Parent groups, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PTOToday/videos/10155975642160224/?fref=nf">eager to provide needed resources</a> for their children, also seek out corporate fundraising “partnerships.” </p>
<h2>Who gains?</h2>
<p>Studies examining financial benefit to schools find, however, that marketing actually brings schools <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/national-survey-types-and-extent-marketing-foods-minimal-nutritional-value-schools">negligible financial returns</a>. </p>
<p>In a 2006 nationally representative study, we found that 67% of US schools engaged in marketing activities did not make any money at all from them. Another 19% of US schools made less than $5,000 over the course of the entire school year.</p>
<p>The self-interested commercial goals of corporations and the public interest goals of schools are in fundamental conflict.</p>
<p>Since corporations are <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/45/2/343.short">legally mandated</a> to prioritize profit to their shareholders over any other goal, by definition, their activities in schools must also serve that purpose.</p>
<p>Cash-strapped schools are a perfect resource for companies that recognize that students are a captive market of <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/11514/chapter/1">great value</a>, a source of immediate business and/or a lifelong customer base.</p>
<p>If we’re honest about the real value and costs of marketing and advertising to children in school, we will find that corporations are the ones emerging as the big winners. Schools make little money even as the well-being of their students is threatened. </p>
<p>It is past time to declare schools ad-free zones.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I have received funding to support my commercialism in schools research from Consumer's Union and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Faith Boninger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unhealthy foods are the most heavily marketed products in school. Why do we allow it?Faith Boninger, Research Associate in Education Policy, University of Colorado BoulderAlex Molnar, Research Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.