Now, should you be under the impression that you're not really a label junkie, let me correct you.
You may not care to dress in Lacoste T-shirts, or carry YSL handbags, but a HUGE amount of your life will be tied up with packaging and branding images.
Not convinced?
Well I challenge you to take a trip to London's Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising and not spend a good few hours exclaiming
"Oh! I'd forgotten all about..."
"...pink, teddybear shaped talc bottles. Just about every one of my friends had one on their dressing table." And then be able to recall all the other features in your 7yr-old mates' bedrooms; the fluffy red rugs, the Womble lampshades, the woven plastic chairs.
"...Mr Men ice lollies!" And be able to taste the sugary, syrupy 'red' flavour.
" Windolene! That pink stuff we used to clean the windows with!" And remember how you'd wipe it on the windows and then draw in it before polishing it all off to a streaky gleam, noting how, just like calamine lotion, it used to go chalky on your fingers.
See? Just like music and smells, brands whisk you back to long-forgotten memories.
Real fruit jellies are my Grandma and Grandpa's house at Christmas.
Dairy Box is the twin birth of my little brother and sister.
I could go on....
But the genius that is Robert Opie's collecting habit means that there are not only sweet wrappers and items of 70's perfumery madness on display, but everything from Crystal Palace crocheting paraphenalia
to vintage sewing patterns.
Not sure what's more scary. The shapeless nature of the lilac top, or the hairdo that looks like it's fresh-popped from a toaster!
The museum captures perfectly the way British society has changed in the last few hundred years or so. Each cabinet is a time capsule of our attitudes to each other and even our use of language.
I will leave you with two thoughts.
Chocolate. It's food!
And
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