The pharaoh's golden toilet
Wirz drives up to the best addresses for the Brockenhaus
Wirz drives up to the best addresses for the BrockenhausBy Ernst Weber When you shop at the mother of all second-hand stores, you don't bring home fleas or junk, but trouvailles. An image campaign designed by Wirz, Zurich, for the Zürcher Brockenhaus positions the 98-year-old social welfare organization as the first address for junk.
The Zürcher Brockenhaus was founded in September 1904 as a non-profit organization to offer people of little means a cheap shopping opportunity. The initiative came from Zurich's oldest masonic lodge, Modestia cum Libertate (McL). Representatives of the lodge came up with the idea after visiting the Brockenhaus run by a certain Julius Müller in Munich at the turn of the century. The German philanthropist financed his social work by selling second-hand goods.
In order to broaden its base, the board of the Zurich Brockenhaus was recruited from officials of the Reformed and Catholic churches, the Jewish religious community, the city of Zurich and the lodge. It is still composed according to this formula today. Over the past 25 years, the organization, which is also independent of the public sector, has donated around twelve million francs to various social institutions.
"We are a non-profit organization that pays taxes and VAT and has to generate all the funds it distributes itself," says Managing Director Hanspeter Hürlimann (see also page 5).
Chunks from the Queen Mum's estate
Although the Zurich Brockenhaus has served the same purpose for 98 years, its image has changed considerably. The shop
fencing in Zurich's former poor man's second-hand department store, which has since been nicknamed "Zurich's most original department store", is becoming increasingly popular. In the record year 2001, sales of 2.6 million francs were achieved.
The transformation from a dingy second-hand store to a cult shopping destination is now documented in an image presentation designed free of charge by Wirz, Zurich. It positions the institution as a house of trouvailles.
The subjects show the Brockenhaus delivery van parked in front of buildings such as the White House or Buckingham Palace. Labeled with the name and the slogan "We get everything", the viewer is forced to conclude that the Zurich Brockenhaus can never consist solely of kitsch and junk.
The Buckingham Palace motif, for example, is given an additional effect by being embedded in a contemporary context due to Queen Mum's recent death.
The concept is an organic whole. All content is communicated in a single step. In this way, the presentation leaves the platform of traditional advertising and moves in the direction of product placement. "The presentation is a bit of a stroke of luck, a compression that doesn't always work so well," says Wirz-CD Matthias Freuler.
The Zürcher Brockenhaus was founded in September 1904 as a non-profit organization to offer people of little means a cheap shopping opportunity. The initiative came from Zurich's oldest masonic lodge, Modestia cum Libertate (McL). Representatives of the lodge came up with the idea after visiting the Brockenhaus run by a certain Julius Müller in Munich at the turn of the century. The German philanthropist financed his social work by selling second-hand goods.
In order to broaden its base, the board of the Zurich Brockenhaus was recruited from officials of the Reformed and Catholic churches, the Jewish religious community, the city of Zurich and the lodge. It is still composed according to this formula today. Over the past 25 years, the organization, which is also independent of the public sector, has donated around twelve million francs to various social institutions.
"We are a non-profit organization that pays taxes and VAT and has to generate all the funds it distributes itself," says Managing Director Hanspeter Hürlimann (see also page 5).
Chunks from the Queen Mum's estate
Although the Zurich Brockenhaus has served the same purpose for 98 years, its image has changed considerably. The shop
fencing in Zurich's former poor man's second-hand department store, which has since been nicknamed "Zurich's most original department store", is becoming increasingly popular. In the record year 2001, sales of 2.6 million francs were achieved.
The transformation from a dingy second-hand store to a cult shopping destination is now documented in an image presentation designed free of charge by Wirz, Zurich. It positions the institution as a house of trouvailles.
The subjects show the Brockenhaus delivery van parked in front of buildings such as the White House or Buckingham Palace. Labeled with the name and the slogan "We get everything", the viewer is forced to conclude that the Zurich Brockenhaus can never consist solely of kitsch and junk.
The Buckingham Palace motif, for example, is given an additional effect by being embedded in a contemporary context due to Queen Mum's recent death.
The concept is an organic whole. All content is communicated in a single step. In this way, the presentation leaves the platform of traditional advertising and moves in the direction of product placement. "The presentation is a bit of a stroke of luck, a compression that doesn't always work so well," says Wirz-CD Matthias Freuler.
