Picking Empire grown tea

Empire Marketing Board 1926 - 1933

Summary

Woman in pink and yellow dress with a scarf on her head and white jewellrey picks tea in field. A large wicker basket on her back is supported by a strap over her head. The scene is framed by a bright blue sky and a pink border. This poster is the second of the series of five Empire Marketing Board posters on the theme of 'Drink Empire Grown Tea' (the series title). The other four works in the collection from this series are Empire Tea 1935.609; An Empire Tea Plantation 1935.608; Drinking Empire Grown Tea 1935 637; Empire Tea 1935.607 and the top caption 1935.629. It is one of 222 Empire Marketing Board posters gifted to the Industrial Art Collection at Manchester Art Gallery by the Empire Marketing Board (EMB) in 1935. The EMB was established in May 1926 by the Conservative party politician Colonial Secretary Leo Amery. It was a key response to growing concern about the long-term prospects of the British economy. A distinctive feature of the EMB's work was its poster campaigns which were displayed in specially designed frames located outdoors in towns and cities throughout the UK. Five posters were shown in sequence conceived as a single linked concept. Each series was accompanied by a top caption. Up to 1931, each display was changed every three weeks. Rather than connect tariff protection in Britain with imperial preference agreements between Britain and the Empire countries, as the British support for free trade was so strong, the British governement chose to spend £1 million each year on promoting the sale of British and Empire goods instead. Its poster campaigns were established to promote trade within the British Empire by persuading British customers to 'Buy Empire'. Such sales would support the Empire countries who would in turn purchase British exports of manufactured goods. The EMB posters represented the Empire as a co-operative effort. The committee of the EMB was made up of William Crawford of Crawfords, a major British advertising agency; Frank Pick who closely supervised all aspects of the poster campaigns and Stephen Tallent, Secretary of the EMB. They selected and commissioned leading artists of the period with a track record of good commercial design to ensure the posters achieved the greatest public impact. Artists initially provided the EMB's Publicity Sub Committee with sketches of their proposed designs responding to Pick's design briefs. These original designs were then transferred to zinc plates and printed by specialist lithography printers, primarily by Waterlow and Sons Ltd. The printing proofs were then approved by the committee and finally around 2000 copies of each poster design was produced. The images were constructed and presented with the clear purpose to change the consumer behaviour of the viewer. The Empire Marketing Board ended in 1932 when the decision was made to replace marketing the Empire with imperial preference agreements at the Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa.