One smart man convinced all of Poland that sugar is a medicine for everything. And he made good money on it!
“Poland seen from the window of the wagon is a very picturesque country,” thought a Frenchman who traveled around Poland by train in the early 1930s. - “Railway station buildings very neat and pretty, surrounded by flowers and shrubs. Only one thing made me wonder. Almost all of these stations have the same name, which is very difficult to pronounce:"Sugar strengthens." At least 80% of localities in Poland are called like that ... " 
The story of a confused visitor from the Seine was presented in July 1932 by a journalist from Kurier Lwowski. And he ironically added:“Indeed, judging by the advertising of our Sugar Industry, Polish sugar has some exceptionally miraculous healing properties. It strengthens, strengthens the heart and muscles, warms, feeds and drinks ”.
Young Melchior Wańkowicz in the photo from the cover of the book "King and the rabbit". Right:clipping of an ad convincing parents that children shouldn't feel sorry for sugar.
A healthy man became an Olympic champion after one ankle. The paralytic was recovering strength in his legs after two ankles. Polish sugar was also supposed to act like Viagra, turning every impotent into a real Don Juan…
Action like never before
In fact, such blunt slogans did not exist. However, the readers of "Kurier" knew perfectly well what the editor was drinking for. Probably the largest advertising campaign in the history of Poland was launched in 1931. A short and blunt slogan - SUGAR OF BROWN - from day to day decorated the stations and streets of almost all cities in the country.
Sugar strengthened not only children. Businessmen were told it was better for life than cocaine…
Hundreds of press titles were streaked with it and repeated on the radio tirelessly. It even found its way to a primer for preschoolers entitled "About Franusiu from Pogwizdów". A few months have passed and everyone already knew them, spoke them and paraphrased them - from the Baltic Sea to the Tatra Mountains.
The famous one-liner did not come about by accident. It was created by Melchior Wańkowicz, who became a copywriter before he started writing seriously. In 1918, this rebellious boy near Minsk was 26 years old, not much else. Although he studied law at the Jagiellonian University, the outbreak of the war prevented him from obtaining a diploma. He also had no professional experience.
Happy sugar peasant high!
He could only boast of being active in the associations of rebellious schoolchildren. It was only thanks to the war that he discovered that he can convince people of his opinion like no one else.
Muscovite - your enemy
He took his first steps in politics, and as soon as Poland regained independence, he joined the activities of the Border Guard. Already in 1921, he became the Head of the Press and Propaganda Department there. He supervised over twenty magazines, a printing house, a network of bookstores and a slides factory. It was then that he started writing powerfully.
From his pen came a whole series of propaganda pamphlets: Muscovite - your enemy How the nation rules itself ?, Why does a Polish soldier enter Lithuania and Belarus ...
From propaganda to advertising
He moved from the Borderlands Guard to the Ministry of the Interior. Until 1926, he headed the Press Department, overseeing the entire Polish media market. As a clerk, he got to know the press and the publishing industry. In the middle of the decade, he used the acquired knowledge, successfully opening his own publishing house - "Rój". He was also not going to waste his close experience with propaganda.
If, in the heat of the war with the Bolsheviks, he could promote the Polish government, then he could praise any product in the same way. He wrote and printed books, but he made real money in advertising.
Salary worthy of a president
From 1930 to 1933 he worked as a promotion advisor in the Polish Sugar Association. It was then that he coined his most famous slogan. Years later, in an interview with another reporter, Krzysztof Kąkolewski, he confided:"I received, I suppose, the highest fee in the world for two words," Sugar strengthens "- 5000 pre-war zlotys, i.e. 500 pre-war dollars for a word, so valuable words can be right ”.
Even President Mościcki did not earn as much a month as Wańkowicz for one slogan!
For comparison, a well-paid white-collar worker at that time earned no more than PLN 400 per month. Even the president of the Republic of Poland could not count on 5,000. And in today's zlotys, every even 50,000 PLN!
Advertising is the basis of fame
The slogan made Wańkowicz famous throughout Poland. The writer's secretary, Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, published years later a report sent by a tourist who ran into Wańkowicz during a canoeing trip in 1932. “This angler came to us in his canoe. He introduced himself politely. This name was not unknown to us, if only because of the high-profile competition and the large prize that was won by the author of the slogan »Sugar strengthens« "- recalled Henryk Trebert.
However, the advertisement quickly broke away from its creator and went out into the world. It was used everywhere and in every context. In order to criticize high sugar prices, hunger in the countryside, but also ... to praise various other products.
Password for everyone
"Sugar is invigorating. Anyone who wants to agree with the rule should eat gingerbread - because sugar is the best in honey, "announced an advertisement for a Krakow gingerbread factory printed in 1933.
The announcements of the Salt Monopoly tried to catch on to the awakened interest in sugar:“A pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt with every dish! Every self-respecting hostess should remember this! ”. The Tobacco Monopoly did the same:"The cigarette brightens the mind, sharpens the wit, calms the nerves!" However, it was impossible to compete with the brevity of Wańkowicz's sweet slogan.
There are no limits to the absurd in advertising. People were even told that… sugar extends life!
It rained in the sessions of the Sejm and city councils. Poems were written about refreshing sugar. And the pranksters added a second, equally simple part to the slogan:"Sugar strengthens. Better vodka! ”.
What about Wańkowicz? After his adventure with the Sugar Association, he easily got a job as the manager of Przedsiębiorstwo Reklamy Pocztowej. Years later, he said straightforwardly:"I started out as an advertiser." And he was not ashamed of it at all. He was convinced that it was precisely this past that gave him the courage to always uncompromisingly promote his own work. And to immodestly expect the admiration of the readers.