No Loafing!

Sweet ‘docu-ad’ for Cadbury’s Bourn-vita, filmed at Hogsthorpe, Lincolnshire.

Mrs Wing of Hogsthorpe, Lincs, is one busy lady. Her day includes running her family bakery and shop with her husband. It also includes taking care of her sons, house and garden – and for these bits she’s apparently flying solo… Then Mr and Mrs Wing’s day ends with a warming cup of Cadbury’s Bourne-vita, the brand that sponsored this sweet-tasting ‘docu-commercial’.

No Loafing! was one of a dozen films made, in this brisk and capable style, by the production company Anglo-Scottish for commissioner Cadbury’s. They were released to cinema supporting programmes between 1952 and 1955, under the series title Other Women’s Lives. Squarely aimed at a female demographic, they’re a highly digestible hybrid of straight commercial with sponsored documentary (or in today’s parlance, branded content). In each case, the advertiser’s money shot kicks in only in the final moments of an engaging two-minute ‘day-in-the-life’ doc.