ORIGINAL VINTAGE POSTERS

Publicity has often used Humour to sell. At the turn of the 20th century Paris streets were full of humorous posters, for the theater (Barrère), the circus and the cabaret (Pal, Grün, Choubrac). Among these were satirical posters by Ogé which caricatured the European leaders of the time.‘
The politically correct’ did not exist in this erratic period of economic development. Posters for cars and bicycles made fun of the homeless. Reckless drivers in their ‘beautiful machines’ were shown running down obese pedestrians or even the handicapped. Washing powder brands used openly racist humour.
Numerous poster artists began their career drawing caricatures in the reviews of the Belle-Epoque (Toulouse-Lautrec, Cappiello). …

This period also marked the birth of the ‘Michelin man’ the famous ‘Bibendum Michelin’ by O’Galop, whose name originated from the Latin phrase “Nunc est bibendum”, and the ‘Thermogène’ brand created by Cappiello, both of which were to became logos throughout the 20th century.

With the outbreak of war between 1914-18, humour disappeared from French streets. It was confined to newspapers and postcards with caricatures of the Kaiser. 

From the 1920’s popular humour began to be less present and this continued between the two wars. Les “années folles” was a time of technological development, speed and luxury. In many domains, publicity became serious and chic.

Even if humour was used less, the school of Cappiello continued (Jean D’Ylen) and artists used humour in posters advertising entertainment or alcoholic drinks.

Certain of these have become publicity icons, like the “Dubo, Dubon, Dobonnet” and “Bonal” by Cassandre, or “l’Affiche des Vins Nicolas” by Dransi (The famous deliveryman “Nectar” and his son “Glou-Glou”) or the 'Guinness Beer animals'.

There were also designers like Fontanet and Patké in Switzerland and Maga or Mauzan in Italy, all subtle humorists.

The after-war years in Europe once again became a period of hope. Humor came back to all walks of life from tourism to produced goods and even a serious subject like aviation. Look at the famous Air-India Maharadja. 

This humor was more subtle, conceptual, and often set off by an idea, a joke or a comic transformation of the subject.
Sometimes it is a drawing reduced to a minimum: two points for the eyes, a line for the nose, a smiley mouth and several strands of hair.
Have a look at a discovery we made of an American poster by Savignac which until now was unknown: the ‘Eutectic’ from 1958:

Great artists emerged: Herbert Leupin and Donald Brun in Switzerland, Savignac in France, Armado Testa in Italy and numerous others.

In several posters Herbert Leupin went as far as caricaturizing himself, with merciless humour
(Eptinger, Grindelwald, Adelboden)

Throughout the 20th century humour stayed present in posters advertising tourism.

In the 70’s poster artists such as Folon or Tomi Ungerer perpetuated the comic tradition.

The political world was also treated with humour, political adversaries were caricaturized, bosses were portrayed as fat cigar smokers or as a many tentacled octopus that starved workers or tenants. Certain posters from the May 68 revolution are also very funny.
Galerie un deux trois has a penchant for the Genevan School called ‘La ligne claire’ (the clear line school), especially the illustrator Exem who has created numerous political posters, bursting with humor in a style directly inspired by comics strips.

From 1990, the ‘politically correct’ took over. Happily several posters transgressed censorship, creating a scandal, which re-enforced their visual impact.
Humour became more ‘Alternative’, sometimes erotic, aggressive or trash, and was influenced by comics, kitch or punk. Look at the posters for the ‘Zürcher theater Spektakel’:

With the transformation and the superpositioning of images, Photoshop has stimulated the development of photo-montage and the creation of many different comic effects.

Humour is one of the main drives of publicity, and will continue to generate numerous publicity campaigns. But for now, let's appreciate the funny side of more than 200 vintage posters, so please, enjoy & smile!