Rédey Judit (szerk.): Nyitunk, Plakátok a szocializmusban, 1945-1989, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum időszaki kiállítás 2009. október - 2010. február. Kiállításvezető (Budapest, Magyar Kereskedelmi és Vendéglátóipari Múzeum, 2009)

The chain had 358 stores in Budapest and 31 in the country at the time of founding. The country shops were soon incorporated into different commercial organisations, but the number of Budapest stores rose rapidly. Other renowned brand names from before the War included the Dreher beer factory which operated until it was nationalised in 1949. Subsequently, it was merged with 3 other beer factories in the Kőbánya district of Budapest and renamed Kőbánya Beer and Malt Factory. The Dohányértékesítő Nemzeti Vállalat [National Tobacco Trade Company] marketed the specialflavoured cigarette for women, called Tulipán |Tulip|. TWo popular brands were introduced in 1948: the fiercely strong Munkás |Worker| and Kossuth, named after the famous Hungarian nineteenthcentury liberal politician. Constructing the land of iron and steel From 1948 onwards the ever-increasing influence of politics caused changes in the life of Hungary. It marked the start of a period of planned economy, large-scale industrialisation, an economy of scarcity, personality cult and, in the arts, Socialist Realism. Adopting the Soviet style was made obligatory, which was the beginning of the era of painting-like posters or poster-like paintings. "Everything was solemn, ceremonial and theatrical. It was no great wonder that they repeated ad nauseam the red drapery of theatre curtains," János Frank writes. Trained in the pre-war workshops, the Hungarian poster artists had to make a shift. The transition posed a more challenging task for modern artists, because the more conservatively inclined had the kind realism expected of them in their fingertips. The obligation to be unambiguous and optimistic, to present the "Socialist type of man" - and not least financial considerations - forced many artists to churn out photo-like works serving public tastes and to produce clichés and downright kitsch. Although official Party ideology was not over-enthusiastic about advertisements, it conceded that commercials were a necessary evil and that advertising had to exist in Communism - serving, however, the needs of the planned economy, not greedy individual capitalists. 25