A couple of weeks ago I visited the “Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising” in London. It’s not far away from Portobello Road and describes itself as “a treasure trove of retro design and memories” which instantly caught my attention as I am a fan of memorabilia! The museum, founded by a collector called Robert Opie, indeed gathers over 12,000 branded items from our ancestors’ daily lives, items that are collectively telling a story about us as a society, us as consumers, us as brand fans, us as citizen. The friendly people at the museum told us not to take photos, but I would like to share just some as a way to promote the place, as I enjoyed my visit a lot!

The entry porch

Weetabix still exists today (click on the image to see today’s visual identity)

Cereal boxes of the middle of the century (click to see what Quaker Oats is today)

Like many other brands, Nestlé celebrated royal events (here: Queen Vistoria’s reign commencement)

Bounty, Crunch, KitKat, Galaxy, Smarties and more…

And even more decade-old candy… (guess what the “Marathon” brand is called today, click to find out)

The evolution of Johnson&Johnson baby products’ packaging

More breakfast food from back in the days…

As I am posting this, I realize that it may not be particularly appetizing (right?) to see food and other daily objects that can date back from centuries. I didn’t even think about that when I was in the museum, and a great effort is being made to educate the visitor around the history of the objects and the larger historical context. Truth be told, some displays are not very clean and some packs are leaking, but you won’t have to worry about smell or flies! It is still very interesting to see what people had in their cupboards in previous generations. Going to the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising must be quite a cool thing to do for corporate events – imagine how inspiring that should be for advertising or design agencies!

Note: This is not a sponsored post! I am taking on that slightly promotional tone because (a) I liked the place and its exhibition and (b) I feel guilty about posting photos that I was asked not to take 🙂

Update from July 8th: Read this Fast Co.Design article about the benefits of brands looking back into their archives, which says that “companies need to curate their history in an engaging, inter-connected way that allows people to access visual stories and memories, told through the individuals that shaped and built them.” Some interesting examples of interactive, virtual archives are shown. Here’s how we recently did it at eYeka 🙂