The poster has always been an ideal medium for addressing social appeals to the public because of its social effectiveness and its widespread appearance in public space. The focus of this year's autumn exhibition of the Zurich Design Museum (from 2 September to 10 January 2010) in the Plakatraum (Poster Room) is on explosive global issues with an ethical dimension. Posters are on show from around the last thirty years, with an emphasis on Swiss posters, which call for us to take responsibility for mankind and our planet.

However, behind these messages are concealed not only different clients but also extremely varied motivations and intentions: as a rule the non-commissioned artists' poster is committed to enlightenment and aims towards a change of awareness and new ways of thinking. Posters commissioned by human rights and environmental protection organisations and aid agencies aim towards inducing direct action by calling for donations or other forms of direct commitment. The rhetoric of compassion is often in the foreground. In recent years an increasing number of businesses have also discovered social and ecological commitment as an efficient marketing tool. This was already evident in Oliviero Toscani's controversial and still unique poster campaign for Benetton in the 1990s.

The visual strategies and rhetorical formulations are as different as the motives. The design of social posters is always a balancing act between presentation that trivialises the subject and makes it aesthetic and even banal, the shock effect and illegible complexity.

In the pictures from above: Oliviero Toscani, United Colors of Benetton, 1989; Naoki Hirai, Is your baby safe?, 2001; Pierre Mendell, Vor Gott sind alle Menschen gleich (Everybody is equal before God), 1995; Grapus, Rich-Poor, 1989