Advertisement for Migros

Despite his scepticism about advertising, Gottlieb Duttweiler hired Karl Schlegel to design posters for Migros. The graphic artist shaped the often humorous character of the Migros brand over a quarter of a century, focusing on the company’s low prices.

In his first flyer in 1925, Gottlieb Duttweiler thunders: “Either the old, favourite shopping habits of the woman win, the advertisements, the slogans – or the hoped-for approval is achieved.” Despite his mistrust of advertisements, which make the products more expensive than necessary, Duttweiler still can not do without them. And so, at the end of the 1920s, he engages Karl Schlegel. Maybe he notices the prize-winning poster for the Swiss National Gymnastics Festival by the graphic designer, who is almost the same age as he. Maybe it is quite simply the unpretentious and traditional language of the images that appeals to him. In any case, Karl Schlegel designs most of the posters for Migros until 1954, and in doing so develops a characteristic Migros style.
Although the producers of brand articles show an elegant consumer world, using the most modern commercial graphic art, Schlegel remains populist in his image language. Without compromise, he makes the lower prices the focal point and helps, if necessary, with everyday poetry. For example, in 1934, in the middle of the economic crisis, he advertises reduced-price peas and beans with a patriotic doggerel verse: "There is a special appeal, to a Swiss product for real."
Karl Schlegel repeatedly shows his sense of humour. In view of the upcoming New Year, he recommends rollmops and herrings, well-known for reviving the spirits after too much alcohol, with a rhyme, based on the German word "Kater", a homonymy for hangover and tom-cat: "Yes, he has got it, as a result, a 'Kater'."