"The Penguins are coming": brand mascots and utopian mass consumption in interwar Britain

Hornsey, Richard

Abstract

This article explores the cultural dynamics of branding and mass consumption in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s. It focuses on Penguin Books’ cartoon mascot, which appeared on all of the firm's paperback covers and in-store promotional material from 1935. A familiar but critically ignored cultural icon, Penguin's mascot followed a wave of prominent advertising characters that energetically burst onto Britain's commercial scene in the early 1920s. Highly visible on packaging, poster hoardings, and advertisements within the press, brand mascots became popular media stars in the 1920s, seeming to herald a dawning age of material parity and collective consumer sovereignty. A decade later, Penguin's mascot used this utopianism around branded mass consumption to forge a leftist vision of social-democratic progress. Augmented by certain in-store display techniques and modes of purchase, Penguin Books appeared to constitute an enlightened public sphere. The cartoon bird became a lucrative mechanism through which browsers were invited to contribute to this progressive cultural project.

Citation

Hornsey, R. (2018). "The Penguins are coming": brand mascots and utopian mass consumption in interwar Britain. Journal of British Studies, 57(4), 812-839. https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2018.116

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 14, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 8, 2018
• Publication Date: Nov 8, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 9, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 8, 2018
• Journal: Journal of British Studies
• Print ISSN: 0021-9371
• Electronic ISSN: 1545-6986
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 812-839
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2018.116
• Keywords: Cultural Studies; History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/925181
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/penguins-are-coming-brand-mascots-and-utopian-mass-consumption-in-interwar-britain/B4F400F37D91AC3D98B86AB06AE12370
• Additional Information: License: Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies 2018
• Contract Date: May 9, 2018