The Olot entrepreneur Manuel Malagrida i Fontanet (1864–1946) founded the most important tobacco company in Argentina. One of the secrets of his success was the use of innovative advertising strategies, and his most famous campaign was the international poster competition to publicize Los Cigarillos París (The Paris Cigarettes).
The Cigarillos París poster competition was announced in December 1900, with a prize fund of 22,000 francs – in the current day equivalent this amount that has never been equalled since – and a total of 31 prizes. Most of the original prize-winning entries, created by the world’s best designers at the time, were kept at the Museu Comarcal de...
