London museum is home to packaging nostalgia

Robert Opie, the self-appointed packaging archivist, stores packaging from yesteryear.

Remember the very first time you heard the sound of “snap, crackle and pop” at the breakfast table, unwrapped a candy bar or discovered the difference between ordinary colas and The Real Thing? The taste might be elusive, but you'd probably only need to see the package or the bottle it came from to instantly recapture just how it felt being you at the time.

With so much attention being focused upon packaging as waste, it's worth pondering the fact that one man's rubbish is another man's reminiscences. Thank goodness for Robert Opie, self-appointed archivist of the packaging industry's best endeavors, stretching back to the first arrival of brands on Victorian retail outlet shelves. Since 1963, Opie has nearly single-handedly been storing up examples of anything and everything packaging, from tins of Andrew's Liver Salts to packets of Zubes throat pastilles to provide a unique testament to the role played by packaging in shaping consumer culture.

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