Advertising and consumption are an essential part of the story of most commodities as the raw materials and finished products are packaged, branded and sold to consumers. Advertising is an aspect of the process which is very well documented in the Global Commodities collection. First and foremost, the Robert Opie collection offers hundreds of images of packaging, advertising ephemera and other marketing materials for nearly all of the commodities covered. It also features a collection of early photographs of shop windows. The collection will facilitate a great deal of project work. Other sources which will support research and teaching in this area are the special advertising files in the Imperial Tobacco and J. S. Fry’s archives from the Bristol Record Office, which give further insight into commercial aspects of advertising and the targeting of specific audiences. The Empire Marketing Board posters from The National Archives, like the one shown here, link marketing with politics. These advertising materials encouraged consumers to support the brands of Empire and to buy into the concept of Empire. Robert Opie’s excellent short essay on Brands and Packaging gives further insights into this area.