Summary

Note: This object includes a cultural stereotype. Such representations are not condoned by Museums Victoria which considers them to be racist. Historical distance and context do not excuse or erase this fact.

Paper page advertisement cut of out the supplement to The Argus, 7 October 1950. The Advertisement is on the back of page 31, and depicts a woman pouring hot water into a cup and a bottle of Bushells essence of coffee and chicory.

Bushells was founded in Brisbane in 1883 as a tea shop by Alfred Bushell and soon proved to be popular. Alfred's sons, Philip and Walter joined and helped expand the business in 1899 and Bushell and Co moved into George St, Sydney, by then supplying tea across Australia. During the Great Depression of the1930s, chicory became a popular coffee substitute and additive and Bushells began making coffee and chicory essence. Coffee and chicory essence is still used in the present day to make cakes and iced coffees.

Physical Description

Paper page advertisement cut of out the supplement to The Argus. The advertisement has a yellow background and a woman with blond hair, green earrings, lipstick and a white and black spotted blouse pouring hot water into a cup with a shiny metal kettle. She is stirring the water to mix it with the coffee and chicory essence in a white cup and saucer. To the left of her is an image of the product - a bottle of Bushells essence of coffee and chicory in brown and te label in blue, white and red. Page 31 contains text in four sections on Shipping: the atlantic record; the Weather Story Flying Hazards - Thunderstorms; General Knowledge The Australian Whaling Industry and Travel History was made in 12 seconds - the last being a small article about the Wright Brothers air machine.

Significance

The significance of the Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence advertisement is in the use of an image of a Turkish man as a trademark to market the product to an Australian audience in the 1950s. This imagery is a continuation of this practice by Bushells and other makers of coffee and chicory essence since the 1930s. During the 1930s to the 1950s Bushells used both a Turkish man with a Fez and a Turkish man wearing a head cloth to advertise their coffee and chicory essence; however, since the 1960s they have exclusively used the Turkish man wearing a fez.

Other brands of coffee and chicory essence also used Turkish imagery in the 1940s to 50s and they include Turban and Pasha brands. By using romanticized oriental stereotypes of Turkey and Turkish men these companies hoped to provide their coffee substitute products with authenticity. Bushells has continued this use up to the present day.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a perennial herb native to Europe, especially the Mediterranean. Its roots can be baked, ground and turned into a coffee substitute. In poor regions and during the Great Depression of the 1930s chicory became popular as a coffee substitute and continues to be used as an additive and substitute in many coffee products not only in the Mediterranean but also in India, southeast Asia, parts of the American south.

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