The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
All of those brightly coloured sweet packages and adverts that you remember from your childhood are all here in this amazing museum. The exhibits here will evoke many memories and see you drawn back right to the days of your childhood. Memories of sweet wrappers, the products of the shelves of the local stores and the new and iconic imagery and branding that evolved with us as we grew up. All of the items in the museum come from the Robert Opie Collection and make this relatively new museum a fascinating place to visit, no matter what your age. The museum is located just off the Portobello Road in the Notting Hill area of London.
Robert Opie
The museum highlights the collection of one man, consumer historian Robert Opie. His collection started at age sixteen with a single packet of Munchies, and now his astonishing collection encompasses everything from toys to technology, and everything else in between. He believes that when you place all of the items together in a natural progression that mirrors the flow of time, you can see the journey that we, as consumers have taken from Victorian times to the present day. The museum arrived in London, from Gloucester in 2005 and has become something of a Mecca for all of those looking to return to their childhood memories.
Events
To mark the Queens Diamond Jubilee there will be a jubilee themed exhibition, running from the beginning of June through to the end of August 2012. This exhibition with be a showcase of all of the commemorative memorabilia that has been issued to mark the jubilees of the past. The exhibition will include items marking the diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1897, along with objects marking the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935, as well as commemorative items from her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee celebrations of 1977. The exhibits will be joined by the newly commissioned items designed to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this year.
The effects of packaging on the environment has been a topic of debate for some time now, and in response supermarkets and high street stores have made changes to meet the challenges of reduced packaging and environmentally friendly solutions. The ‘Packaging for a Sustainable Future’ exhibition, which has been sponsored by Tesco, highlights the importance of good packaging and illustrates how packaging methods have developed and changed over the years, and how now manufacturers and retailers are trying to work together to achieve a more sustainable method for the future.
The ‘Waste Not Want Not’ exhibition takes visitors back to the days of World War II, when commodities were scare and the nation was encouraged to ‘mend and make do’. The items in this exhibition take us back to the days of the black outs and rationing, with the hope that it can encourage us to be more economical in the future, by drawing on the lessons that the past can teach us.
