(Exhibition text in English, referring to a QR code in the exhibition)
Packaging and advertising
Expanding mass production means an increased demand for packaging. In the 1920s, commercial artists work with new forms of artistic expressions. Words and images interact in ways that encourage customers to consume. Popular Swedish advertising slogans like ‘Tag det rätta – tag Cloetta’ (‘Choose the right thing – choose Cloetta’) are devised. The new typeface FUTURA is marketed as ‘the typeface of today and tomorrow’.
The packaging industry grows. AB Bleckvarufabriken in Malmö merges with other manufacturers to form AB Plåtmanufaktur, later PLM, in 1918. Åkerlund & Rausing is established in Lund in 1930 and will eventually become the largest packaging company in the country.
A few objects
Tin with jumping deer, made for Carl Peter Påhlsson’s Confectionery in Malmö. The tin that looks like a bag was made by Huntley & Palmers, London. Founded in 1822, they were famous for their biscuits and decorative tins. Advertising sign for Lazarol and Lazarin, products from the Helios factory in Sundbyberg. The following remark about Lazarol can be found in the contemporary encyclopaedia Nordisk Familjebok: ‘Exaggerated advertising puts the drug on a par with quack medicine, and swindles piles of money out of gullible people.’