East German advertisements of the 1950s and 1960s

On the Vintage Ads LJ group, the always-great Man Writing Slash has posted a marvellous collection of East German advertisements that combine propaganda and sales-pitches and appear to have dropped out of a parallel universe.

East German Ads, 1950s/1960s

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I fail to see the “propaganda” in any of those ads.
Any of them could just as well have come from West Germany.
- retepslluerb
  
  The text is in German. It *must* be propaganda.
- paulcarcosa
  
  Not the one with the blue pioneer necktie.
  I would say there is some subtle difference in the designs, but that’s debatable.
  - retepslluerb
    
    I’m debating it.
    
    The Bino has a different design, too. The blue pioneer necktie was standard issue (more or less) and the text itself doesn’t contain any propaganda or even a politcal statement. The festival itself is a couple of hundred years old.
    
    The place “am Zoo” dates the poster to 1949–1952, according to German wikipedia.
    - paulcarcosa
      
      My remark was only about the “could just as well come from West Germany” part, where the necktie would have seemed misplaced.
      You can tell more often than not whether some artifact belongs to east or west. I’m just not sure in these particular cases presented here.
      - retepslluerb
        
        Oh, okay, yes. The blue necktie would place it, even w/out the text.
        
        I think the clear difference bewteen Western and Eastern artifacts is a thing of the lates 60s and 70s and 80s. East German design seemed more stagnant to me. Probably both a matter of ressources and being cut off from the rest of the world (safe the East Bloc, of course). Plus, less planned obsolescence via fashions.
    - paulcarcosa
      
      There’s politics even in the design of water bottles.
      Die geteilte Form: Deutsch-deutsche Designaffären
      (about the differences of design on both sides of the wall)
      industrieform-ddr.de (author’s homepage)
http://www.facebook.com/sven.haynes Sven Haynes

I thought the advertisement was typical for it’s era. Where was the “propaganda” element?
- http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
  
  Mayhap he meant pro pagan da (on behalf of my heathen Welsh father)?
- Wreckrob8
  
  Take a proper gander and it’s there, mate.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig

not just ’50s and ’60s, the circular-headed FEWA lady was around right until the brand was bought out (by P & G I think) in the early 1990′s
hacky

I’m not a big enough geek to know why boingboing’s logo changed. Anyone care to enlighten me?
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  Psygnosis closed down, so it’s a memorial.
  
  http://boingboing.net/2012/08/22/psygnosis-promotional-video-fr.html
- http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art
  
  I think the new logo was changed by Heather Dorinden :)
ChicagoD

I saw Goodbye Lenin! for the first time a few weeks ago. The depiction in these ads and that movie together portray a sort of soft-focus sweetness to East Germany that is utterly at odds with the propaganda I grew up with. My expectation is that the truth is somewhere between Ostalgie and Reagan-era vilification.
coop

“advertisements that combine propaganda and sales-pitches”

Isn’t that what advertising does?
http://capl.washjeff.edu/ capl

Der Spiegel has a great historical media collection called “Eines Tages” roughly “once upon a time”. They had an article about DDR Ads here: http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/5331/koenig_kunde_kauft_im_konsum.html
Or you can search the database for items like this http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/AllDocuments/searchForm.html?formids=pageNo%2Ckeyword%2CsearchButton%2CisImageSelected%2CisVideoSelected%2CisPdfSelected%2CsortOptions&submitmode=submit&submitname=&pageNo=0&keyword=ddr+werbung&searchButton.x=0&searchButton.y=0&searchButton=submit&isImageSelected=on&isVideoSelected=on&isPdfSelected=on&sortOptions=0#searchResults
s2redux

What a cute little StasiBear on the sofa!
Antinous / Moderator

Advertisement is a subset of propaganda (“information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”).