A Growing Business

St Mary Bourne
1954
Sound
10m

Sweet 'docu-commercial' for Cadbury's Bourn-vita, filmed around Bourne St Mary's, Hampshire.

Mrs Ennals of Bourne St Mary's, Hants, is one busy lady. Her day includes a shift at a watercress farm, housework, taking care of her son and then entertaining her wide circle of friends in the evening. And those evenings, and her husband's, are always topped off by a warming, soporific cup of Cadbury's Bourn-vita, the brand that sponsored this sweet-tasting 'docu-commercial'.

Growing Business was one of a dozen films made for commissioner Cadbury's, in this brisk and capable style, by the production company Anglo-Scottish. They were released to cinema supporting programmes between 1952 and 1955, under the series title Other Women's Lives. Squarely aimed at a female demographic, they're a highly digestible hybrid of straight commercial with sponsored documentary (or in today's parlance, branded content). In each case, the advertiser's money shot kicks in only in the final moments of an engaging two-minute 'day-in-the-life' doc.

What Women Want?

Caring mums, hard-working housewives or independent, fun-loving 'new women' - the female consumer has long been a target of screen advertising.

In the cause of selling anything from baked beans to washing powders to all manner of labour-saving devices, advertisers have promised to make women's lives easier and to help them build happy homes and successful relationships.

There's no getting past the fact that women have all-too often been patronised and objectified by a male-dominated advertising industry. But screen advertising also tells (and sells) a more positive story of social progress for women, with increasing social and economic independence. This collection tracks the ups and downs of female empowerment in the 20th century, with its false steps as revealing as its forward ones.