ABSTRACT

This article examines the historical legacy of contemporary development alliances through an analysis of the British government’s Empire Marketing Board poster campaign from 1926 to 1933. The primary aim of these posters was to instil in the British public a preference for buying empire-grown goods and the significance of their role as consumers in maintaining the Empire. By conveying messages of a common humanity and invoking a visual language of interdependence between Britain and its colonies, the posters attempted to open up new connections and create new moral communities across distance in ways that are not dissimilar to fair trade campaigns today.