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WHO BELONGS TO THE ‘STAR PEOPLE’? NEGOTIATING BEER AND GIN ADVERTISEMENTS IN WEST AFRICA, 1949–75*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2012

DMITRI VAN DEN BERSSELAAR
DMITRI VAN DEN BERSSELAAR*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
*
Author's email: dvdb@liv.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article explores the different trajectories of advertising for schnapps gin and beer in Ghana and Nigeria during the period of decolonisation and independence up to 1975. It analyses published newspaper advertisements alongside correspondence, advertising briefs, and market research reports found in business archives. Advertising that promoted a ‘modern’ life-style worked for beer, but not for gin. This study shows how advertisements became the product of negotiations between foreign companies, local businesses, and consumers. It provides insights into the development of advertising in West Africa, the differing ways in which African consumers attached meanings to specific commodities, and possibilities for the use of advertisements as sources for African history.

Keywords

West AfricaGhanaNigeriaalcoholAfrican modernitiesbusiness
Type
The Political and Moral Economy of Leisure
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , November 2011 , pp. 385 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

I would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of History in the University of Liverpool, and of the IGK network, Work and Life-Cycle in Global Historical Perspective, at the Humboldt University, Berlin. I thank Diane Backhouse and Jeannette Strickland of Unilever PLC, as well as Ton Vermeulen and Wendy van Wijk of Lucas Bols BV, for all their help with the project. I benefited from comments and suggestions received when I presented this material at the ASAUK Conference in Preston, at the Keele University Modern History Seminar, and at the University of Birmingham's West Africa Seminar. I also thank Matthew Hilton and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

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67 Van der Sloot, 150 Jaar Henkes, 53–9.

68 Van den Bersselaar, The King of Drinks, 227–30.

69 Ogunbiyi, 60 Years of Winning, 72–3.

70 Interview with Ishmael Yamson.

71 Interview with Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.

72 Ibid.