Description:
Tram poster for the Cooperative Store.
After World War II from the beginning of the socialist era, 1948, private property was gradually wound up by the state. A retail trade and wholesale system was created by overtaking all private tradings. Hence, the cooperative stores were born. These stores were operated by the state. This act had various motifs. Besides the obvious social-political reasons, the Socialist ideology considered the principle of 'the bigger the economic unit the more developed it is' to be normative. The centralization of the management and monitoring of the economy was also a major aspect which required a lower number of companies. Due to this and the neglecting of service in general, trading started to fall apart in the 1950s. The supply was very low and it was really difficult to purchase what people desired. However, in the 1960s commerce started to rise and cooperative stores started to sell a larger variety of goods. The goal of the stores was to motivate customers for purchasing regularly. A very good motivational force was the variety which was a new phenomenon. Posters often used the presentation of this variety to convince the audience that the cooperative store is a good place to do the shopping at.
This tram poster lines up a number of cosmetic brands of the 1960s: Caola, Kaloderma, Exotic, Michel, Gardenia and Opera. Not only the names brands are different but the goods as well. We can see toothpaste, face and body lotion, cologne, lipstick and other products on the advertisment. It might be deceiving for the audience of today, but having so many brand names did not equal to having so many different production companies in the Socialist times. All these brands were produced by one company which was founded by József Hutter in 1831 and is called today the Caola-Alfa Ltd.
The poster reflects cleanliness with its grean background and delicacy with the lady on it holding the Opera lotion in her hand. By looking on the poster the audience feels that the lady is so beautiful because she uses all the products listed below her. The clean, cartoon-like design is very typical of the 1960s.
