Austria's leading underwear producer Palmers introduced 1981 a complete new line in advertising. The new campaign caused a hot scandal and especially the feministic scene felt mighty shaked up. The advertising was a signal that a new understanding was arising, but first not everybody agreed. Nobody could foresee all the emotions and reactions which were caused by the public posters. The poster was cause, stimulus and multiplicator.
Feministic slogans could not longer irritate young and self-confident women. Underwear has become a visible expression of body consciousness! The public scandal turned into a female liberation and emancipation, and encouraged the femals to emphasize their beauty.
Posters are a visualized speech of the "outside". They are just there, as a community institution and part of the urban scenery. Palmers posters have become very closed to every day art. It is no longer the placement of a company's name or the advertising for underwear, it has become "art of the streets". Maybe somedays they will be exposed in a museum. They are a sign for quality and sensuality. And they are indeed a kind of entertainment.
The poster as a cultural factor. Art and advertising are unseparably linked. It can effect shock, agression or surprise. Palmers advertising is no more a scandal today, it is more a style for what can we expect and for self-confidence and it is an expression of wishes and pleasure. And today it seems that the people are already waiting for every new poster. And women are proudly wearing this underwear!
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