Description:
Tram poster for advertising the State Owned Supermarket (Közért). Közért was the grocery store during Socialist times where all kinds of foodstuff could be purchased. The State Owned Supermarket was the equivalent of a regular supermarket but was a nationalized version of that. The state's purpose with posters was - besides of course many others - to make the everyday people feel that everything they might need is supplied by the government and is easily accessible in the shops. However, this wasn't exactly the case. There was rather a lack of supply in the Socialist times even though posters of the era tell the opposite.
The poster advertises real coffee because it wasn't that evident in the times of Socialism that everyone could access or afford real coffe. The substitute coffee - made of chicory - was cheaper and easier to find especially in the 1950s. By the 1960s the range of the available goods widened and advertisements often used the new (and most of the times more quality) products as a motivational force to attract customers to the promoted shops. This poster tells to people that real coffee is also available in the State Owned Supermarket.
The design is very simple, the dark brown colour dominates the whole composition. It associates with coffee. The bright orange colour bring life to the composition but at the same time it keeps it warm. The designer of the work probably used the ship on his poster to emphasize that real coffee comes from overseas right to their homes. In the foreground there is a white cup which contains hot coffee. The text is written with simple white letters on a black stripe which is in perfect harmony with the other perts of the design. The logo of Közért is written on this cup. All posters promoting the State Owned Supermarket use this logo, not their own typeface for writing down Közért.
