The Shanghai Power Company – Reassuring the Public

The Shanghai Power Company had a slogan – ‘RDR: Reliability, Dependability and Responsibility’. That was their trio of service. This advert, that appeared in 1940, was not simply a general announcement, a bit of regular corporate PR, but actually a very necessary attempt to calm Shanghailander opinion. The problem was that the war and the Japanese occupation of much of the country was disrupting both coal mining and transportation. Additionally, much of the shipping that transported coal was diverted to the North Atlantic or sunk. Supplies in Shanghai were low and in danger of running out. The company imported 350,000 metric tons of bituminous coal in 1939 and again in 1940 from British India to Shanghai. Hence the need to reassure nervous Shanghailanders that the lights were not about to go out and that they had managed to secure coal supplies to keep the party running.