Retro Wartime Slogans Get a Coronavirus Update

A London-based creative team has revived some of the UK’s most famous and catchy World War 1 and World War 2 slogans to help in the new global battle against the spread of Covid-19.

From the famous WW1 recruitment poster ‘Lord Kitchener Wants You’ to the superlative piece of of guilt tripping ‘Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?’ these slogans and images are familiar parts of wartime imagery in the UK. James Hodson and Jason Keet are a creative duo who work at Engine and they were inspired to revisit those classic posters while watching Prime Minister Boris Johnson announce a UK-wide lockdown in response to the growing coronavirus infection rates in the country.

“We were sitting at home watching Boris’s speech telling people to stay in. It felt like a wartime public announcement. So we had the idea of using wartime posters. Then we wrote the lines and designed the posters overnight, and posted them the next day,” they say.

Like many in the creative community, they have been inspired to use their spare time and creative skills to encourage people to do their bit to stop the spread of the disease. Confused and, at times contradictory, advice from government resulted in scenes of mass gatherings in British parks at the weekend and so creatives have taken it upon themselves to find ways to convey clear messages and appeal to people’s better natures.