Get Ready for Brexit

Submission 10,443

Part of a series on United Kingdom Withdrawal From the European Union / Brexit. [View Related Entries]

About

Get Ready for Brexit refers to a series of parodies mocking an advertisement for Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union colloquially known as Brexit.

Origin

In late August and early September 2019, the British government released a series of advertisement with the catchphrase "Get ready for Brexit." For example, on September 1st, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @SebastianEPayne tweeted a photograph of the meme and the caption, "Coming to a shopping centre near you." Within two days, the tweet received more than 650 likes and 220 retweets (shown below).

Spread

Following the release of the advertisements, people online began mocking the slogan, editing images of the advertisement and criticizing the exit plan. For example, Twitter^[2] user @Aidan4Europe tweeted the image with the word "to collapse." The post received more than 795 likes and 250 retweets in two days (shown below, left).

Throughout the day, the hashtag "GetReadyForBrexit" trended on Twitter. For example, Twitter^[3] user @Femi_Sorry tweeted a series of statistics that refute some promises made by the pro-Brexit campagin. They wrote, "50% UK cars are sold to other EU countries. 50% UK fish is exported to EU countries. 1/3 Welsh lamb is sold to EU countries. No Deal forces the EU to put tariffs on all of it. How exactly do UK factory workers, fishermen & farmers 'get ready' for that? Smile?" The tweet received more than 8,600 likes and 2,700 retweets in two days (shown below, center). Twitter^[4] user @w11eyh tweeted a photograph of a "ration book," indicating that they expect food shortages under Brexit. The post received more than 1,400 likes and 590 retweets in two days (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the hashtag and memes, including The Daily Dot, ^[5] Yahoo,^[6] Indy100^[7] and more.