Chapter 3 - Marketing Fresh Air

Summary

Fresh air and green spaces were key to the development of Cadbury’s company image, and to the marketing of their cocoa and chocolate products. The creation of Bournville’s industrial pastoral landscape – widely marketed as the Factory in the Garden – was grounded in the firm’s recreational activities and theatrical performances. Outdoor performance was a key ingredient in this imagery, and a significant amount of theatrical activity was staged on the factory’s recreation grounds, including masques, Shakespeare and Robin Hood plays and Ancient Greek tragedies. Focusing on Cadbury’s summer works party performances, Chapter 3 considers performances that attracted audiences of between 5000 and 6000, who were offered rich, lengthy entertainment programmes that lasted up to eight hours, and brought together fairground side-shows, burlesques, sports, tableaux vivants, dances, song, brass bands, appearances from well-known professional performers, plays, maypole dancing, and aquatic spectacles.