From pop songs to Persil, gin to Bisto, and Perrier to Smash, there’s a celebration of British brands on display appropriately at the Museum of Brands in West London.

As with the museum’s time tunnel of packaging, this display is very much a look back at some of the most famous brands that have adorned supermarket shelves and filled the gaps between TV shows with their adverts.

I had no idea that the Smash aliens were so large in real life – assuming them to be much smaller string puppets. And I am a bit puzzled by the point of a 007-branded toy cap pistol that came with a silencer – the loud bang being a key element of the caps they were loaded with.

A pedant might note that the VHS tape is sitting on an incompatible Video 2000-format player from Philips – but then again, a huge number of visitors have probably never seen a VHS tape player to notice.

For those who lived through the 1980s, the long row of Perrier bottles might bring back memories of when it was the bottled water to drink. All seems rather quaint now. Seeing the collection of Pears soaps made me wonder what happened to Imperial Leather, which seemed to be everywhere 20 years ago, then vanished.

A key thing to note here is that while the branding and adverts are British, many of the products themselves were created overseas, then sold into the UK market.

A whole section is given over to curry, ranging from ghastly ready meals to the vast array of rice now sold in the UK. A note that curries have been eaten in the UK since at least 1747 made me smile, as that means we’ve been eating curries for longer than we’ve been eating fish and chips.

They’ve filled the whole room with shelves of nostalgia

The exhibition, Branding Britain, is at the Museum of Brands until the end of September 2026.

It’s included in the general entry to the museum, and there’s also a small display of felt panels of well-known brands by Lucy King

• Standard Ticket: £14
• Young Person Ticket (17-25): £10
• Child Ticket (7-16): £8
• Child Ticket (6 And Under): Free
• Concessions: £10
• Universal Credit: £1
• National Art Pass: £7

Note that the entry covers a full year, so keep the till receipt.

Details here.