The comeback of Trabbi - Why our image of the customer is schizophrenic....
I truly like the colorful world of advertising. It´s like a dating page in classifieds for potential customers. But I also vividly remember the depressing range of „colors" in the German Democratic Republic. Driving for hours on end on the strongly secured Autobahn between Bavaria and Berlin, I did learn one thing: A society without freedom is a society without colors, without choice, without customers and products. Without advertising, the world is everything else but colorful.
There was a strange abundance of billboards in the GDR, though: They all reached down to the floor to serve as a disguise for the speed traps hidden in a Wartburg behind them. Maybe that was the reason why their content never seemed to matter. Who would believe the strange statements made by Honecker & Friends anyway. „A car meeting every possible demand" - as Trabant ads claimed in the late 80´s . What a joke against the contrast between socialism´s most popular car and the latest AUDIS and MERCS cruising through on a shared stretch of highway.