Let's Watch Some Confusing Communist Car Commercials!

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I love old Eastern Bloc cars, openly and unashamedly. I know for many they're just sad reminders of an oppressive time, but there's some weird charm those cars, like these Wartburgs and Trabants, have. Still, can someone explain how commercials worked in a planned economy?

Why did they have to advertise these? If all you could get, car-wise, was a Trabi or a Wartburg, do you really need to advertise? Or were they just to remind people that, yes, you just may be able to get a car someday?

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If anyone lived in these places at these times and wants to enlighten me in the comments, I'm all eye-ears.