Empire Marketing Board Posters

Manchester Art Gallery’s little-known collection of posters, commissioned by the British Government’s Empire Marketing Board (EMB) between 1926 and 1933, is a fascinating subject, and a welcome addition to Scala’s popular 4-fold series. The EMB’s main functions were to research the production, trade and use of goods throughout the British Empire and to promote the idea of ‘Buying Empire’. A product of their time, these posters, whilst visually stunning, also raise difficult questions for a contemporary audience about the legacy of empire. Empire Marketing Board Posters includes a selection of posters from this unique collection, examining the varied themes of the EMB’s graphics output and questioning its promotion of a sense of imperial pride and the use of stereotypical images of people and places.