You know it's time to start blogging when...

I had one of those rather disconcerting experiences on Sunday whereby everyday memories and part of my past became the subject for an exhibition in a museum. Luckily, this was "one step removed" as the memories and past were not actually mine, but my husband's.

We visited an exhibition of advertising and packaging from the last 100 years and amongst the enamel signs, copperplate invoices and monochrome cardboard record sleeves were plenty of exhibits from the more recent past.

Brands like Florida Boy, Salamander shoes and Imi washing powder (from whence comes my husband's nickname) are not that familiar to me but there were one or two "global" brands knocking around, even in the 1960s: Lux soap with a wonderful Austin-Powers-"Fembot"- style lady on the packaging - who I am sure adorned the UK packaging, too. Talking of ladies, I wonder if anyone can guess what the Gwen Stefani-esque skier on the poster is advertising. Answers in the comments, please: I'll let you know next time.

On the subject of time and the past, I was having a conversation with a non-native English speaker yesterday about the difference between "contemporary" and "modern", in relation to positioning a brand. My view was that it's a question of taste. I have never liked "contemporary" myself, probably because it used to appear as one of three adjectives in the "mood and tone" box on the creative brief when I started in advertising - or that it appears, along with "professional", in every other Mission Statement these days. And it just sounds plain pretentious, if that isn't an oxymoron. Modern is more direct, more inclusive, more of a statement. But that's just my view.