Familiar and Exotic Brands from 1950s Singapore
The Singapore National Archives is, as many such repositories must be, not an obvious source of inspiration from the outset. Housed in a nondescript building between the Registry of Marriages and the more mundane Singapore Philatelic Museum, it’s almost as though it knows its rightful place is to remain discretely out of view in Singapore’s rapidly and perpetually transforming cityscape.
Viewing brands through one of Singapore’s rare windows on its past.
A recent visit to the National Archives involved reviewing past editions of the Straits Times and reflecting on the brands of products that were popular at the time, through the lens of advertisements in the Straits Times between January and February in 1950, over 75 years ago.
Some have survived the test of time: Rose’s Lime Cordial, the familiar Johnson’s name (and logo) but on prickly heat powder (before the introduction of air conditioning to the tropics), Ponds, Cussons and Andrex can all be found in today’s supermarket aisles.
Intriguing brand names such as Balashin Sai, Zam Buck, evoke swashbuckling characters from some forgotten Shaw Brothers movie. Then there are those that take on exotic associations. Wassiamul’s and Bokhara Palace, high street retailers that would presumably have given CK Tangs a run for its money with their cornucopia of Eastern treasures.
Many other brands seem lacking in character and in any associative meanings. Hudsons, Sloans, Crookes, Kepler, Morleys – all sound like affable middle class neighbours in suburban England, not exactly names about to kick open the door on super-brand stardom.
Others are arresting for their frankness. Brooklax chocolate laxative and the show-stopping ‘Bile Beans’ – health for women. Yet the branding Oscar must surely go to Balashin Sai’s tagline: ‘for foul breathing’.
This was the time of the Malayan Emergency when Singapore’s post-war society was still in need of peace and comfort.
The ‘Malayan Emergency’ was the colonial government’s term for the conflict. The Malayan National Liberation Army termed it the ‘Anti-British National Liberation War’. But the rubber plantations and tin mining industries had pushed for the use of the term “emergency” since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyd’s insurers if it had been termed a “war”.
It was a time captured in popular culture through Leslie Thomas’ 1966 novel ‘The Virgin Soldiers’ and subsequently adapted into the 1969 film of the same name. A young David Robert Jones (aka Bowie and a brand that is both familiar and exotic) makes the briefest of appearances in his very first feature film.
Returning to these old brands of yesteryear, some of whose names are still with us today and others which have long disappeared, one finds an earnest and an almost endearing sense of purpose in what were far simpler times despite the conflict.
The ailments and angsts of Singapore’s post war population are neatly encapsulated in the advertisements of the day after the Second World War and in the run up to self-governance & independence in 1965.
