Reaction
There was a widespread feeling, even while the campaign was going on, that it was fundamentally risible. New Statesman columnist Philip French thought its "jingoism and intellectual dishonesty" was offensive and felt that the excessive press coverage defied comment "other than the gesture of laughing at" it. The magazine itself ran a one-off column, to go with its long-established "This England" column, featuring press cuttings highlighting absurd aspects of the campaign. The Communist Morning Star newspaper published a parody of the Maxwell advert which claimed to be "non-political, non-partisan and nonsensical" and proclaimed the support of nonsense poets Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Paul McCartney thought the campaign was ridiculous and it inspired him to write a song called "I'm Backing the UK", which eventually became "Back in the U.S.S.R." on 'The White Album'. At the conclusion of the film 'Carry On... Up the Khyber', made during the summer and opening in November 1968, the raising of a Union Flag with the "I'm Backing Britain" slogan is greeted by Peter Butterworth turning to camera and saying "Of course, they're all raving mad, you know!".
Read more about this topic: I'm Backing Britain
Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
“An actor must communicate his author’s given message—comedy, tragedy, serio- comedy; then comes his unique moment, as he is confronted by the looked-for, yet at times unexpected, reaction of the audience. This split second is his; he is in command of his medium; the effect vanishes into thin air; but that moment has a power all its own and, like power in any form, is stimulating and alluring.”
—Eleanor Robson Belmont (1878–1979)
“In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)