Starting from the Victorian period right through to dare I say, the “noughties” The Museum of Brands represents a little piece of consumer history, all packed into this tiny little museum in Notting Hill.
Featuring over 12,000 original items The Museum of Brands Packaging and Advertising displays how the evolution of household products such as Cadburys or Bird’s eye custard has changed over time from their simple wooden packagings to the slick, plastic designs that’s now on offer to today’s 21st century consumer.
What is fascinating is the amount of World War one memorabilia on display here. Items range from monthly magazine “the war worker,” recruitment posters with the words “Women of Britain say GO” written on them, to specially made “first-aid tobacco” for soldiers on the frontline. They even have a “victory” section.
Liver and Health salts are the “best-sellers” of the Victorian period, along with a new chocolate brand called Cadburys. As you make your way through the darkened tunnel of collector’s items you begin to feel like a child peering through a shop window wondering how far your penny or shilling, given the time period can stretch.
Chocolate, sweets and the familiar everyday brands tease you back to your childlike greedy self. One thing that is funny about this display is the lengths advertisers went to make Bovril, a thick meat stock, look sexy. A slim, fresh-faced model teasingly holds the jar in her hand, as if it resembles that of a seductive, tasty drink.
Spitting Image
Sadly, it’s not, and like Marmite you either love it or hate it, with many preferring the latter. The 60s era draws a large crowd of people, mainly tourists cooing over the cuteness of a young Sir Paul Mc Cartney. Gazing at the thousands of products on display, to the backdrop of old black and white advertising on a television, one wonders who began to collect all these products:
“Robert Opie, the guy standing behind you”, whispers the cashier:
“I started collecting these items long before you were born, he laughs. They’re so transient and need to be preserved: 40 years ago I collected my first sweet wrapper,” and this he says “is only half of it”.
Roberts is standing with his back to the latest display, “Political Mugs” akin to the British satirical puppet show Spitting Image, they are hilarious. On display are Margaret Thatcher slippers, a Private Eye front page “Margaret Thatcher is naked” spoof, and best of all Margaret Thatcher toilet roll. But Mrs Thatcher is not the only one on display, Harold Wilson, former Labour Prime Minister also gets a slating, as he comes in his very own Humpty Dumpty style light stand that sees him sitting on a wall, with the familiar “egg-like” Humpty Dumpty head.
I ask Robert why our current Prime Minister Gordon Brown hasn’t made the cut, to which he replies: “Mr Brown is on his way, I saw a mug online and very soon, he’ll be here.”
For now, we’ll just have to make do with the current display of former prime ministers, and given the array of satire each one falls victim too, that should be quite enough.
Nearest tube: Notting Hill gate/ Westbourne Park
Have your say - info@offbeatlondon.co.uk
Imagine for a second your favourite sweet as a child. The wrapper, the colours, and most importantly, the taste. Now that nostalgia has set in, it’s time to revisit your youth, at The Museum of Brands, London.
by Claire Noble
published on: 13 April, 2010
A collector’s dream
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