Empire marketing

Hugh Williams

Summary

A Union Jack flag is used to suggest a port with ships anchored upon the flags markings. Goods sit upon the red stripes of the flag ready to be loaded on the cargo ships and vehicles and figures move around the red and white markings. Each 'arm' of the flag is marked with a different destination.

Display Label

Empire Marketing 1926-33 Hugh Williams Lithographic print poster 1930: 307ppm CO2 In 1930 Britain dominated vast areas of the globe: around 70 countries were aggressively controlled through invasions and colonisations. Entire economies and their resources were forced to serve the needs and polluting industries of the UK. Sustainable systems were destroyed and appropriated, tens of millions died and livelihoods were made precarious. All of this was justified by the British sense of racial superiority. This nationalistic image celebrates incoming goods to the centre of empire, the Union Jack. Each arm ends with a signpost indicating one of a number of brutally colonised geographies. The poster unwittingly depicts the founding causes and economic relations of today’s climate crisis, marketed to all as central to British identity. It is a legacy which still needs to be unpacked. Kooj Chuhan Gift of Empire Marketing Board 1935.732