Snack to the future: What old crisp packets can teach us about twentieth century Britain

Professor Annebella Pollen, from the University of Brighton’s School of Humanities and Social Science, has written the foreword for a cult new publication, UK Crisp Packets 1970–2000: The Incomplete Collection of Chris Packet, revealing how crisp packets reflect changing attitudes to childhood, gender, fantasy, health, marketing and waste.

The book, published by maverick fashion label Sports Banger, is based on the extraordinary collection of a graffiti writer known only as “Chris Packet”, who began rescuing discarded crisp packets from train tunnels. Preserved away from sunlight and street sweepers, the packets survived like accidental archaeologic al finds. His collection has since grown into a vast archive, now published for the first time.

In her foreword, Professor Pollen shows that these once-kicked-around, coat-pocket-stuffed wrappers were far more than packaging. They shaped playground rituals, sold dreams of space travel and American adventure, flirted with sexual innuendo, reinforced gender stereotypes, and quietly documented Britain’s consumer culture.

Professor Pollen said: “Crisp packets are part of the pleasure of eating crisps. They offered children fantasy, humour, competition, collectability and sometimes outright mischief. When you line them up together, you realise they tell an astonishing story about who we were and what we valued. This brilliant collection shows how even the smallest and most ordinary objects can document large cultural shifts in British life.”

“Unlike today’s tightly regulated marketing of junk food to children, crisp packets from the 1970s to 2000s reveal a period of creative freedom and excess. From space snacks marketed to “cosmonauts” and alien characters, to Bermuda Triangle mysteries and Wild West wagons, crisp packets promised adventure far beyond the lunchbox. These designs reflected Britain’s fascination with America, technology and imagined futures.”

Professor Pollen further highlights how strongly gender stereotypes were embedded in everyday design. Male characters dominated as footballers, adventurers and mischievous schoolboys, while female figures appeared rarely and were often portrayed as nagging wives, scolding mothers or ditzy daughters. Even alien characters were subtly gender-coded.

Her foreword also highlights issues of race and representation, noting that crisp packaging from this period was overwhelmingly white, with only occasional and often simplified references to other cultures, such as curry-flavoured snacks framed through exoticised imagery.

Professor Pollen also highlights how crisp packets chart shifting ideas about health and morality. Earlier designs embraced their junk-food appeal, promising greasy pleasure and novelty effects such as blue tongues. Later packets attempted to rebrand crisps as healthier choices, using language such as “baked not fried”, “natural” and “vitamin enriched”, reflecting growing concern about children’s diets.

This research continues Professor Pollen’s long-standing exploration of graphic printed ephemera, which has previously included Victorian greetings cards, Edwardian postcards, photographic paper wallets and department store bags. Across these projects, her work consistently demonstrates how overlooked, everyday objects can offer powerful insight into social history and cultural change.