In the 70s, «Pif Gadget» was a popular French youth magazine. It emerged from the communist youth magazine "Le jeune patriote" and was the first magazine to come with a gimmick. "Pif Gadget" achieved circulations in the millions - four times as high as the competitor "Le Journal de Mickey". The magazine also owed its success to the comic stories written by renowned authors such as Goscinny, Gotlib, Mandryka, Uderzo, Mordillo, Tabary and Hugo Pratt. An internal editorial struggle for art and commerce ensued, which was astonishing given the communist leanings of the editors.
The German version "Yps" appeared as a West German children's magazine from 1975 and also reached millions of copies. Some gimmicks, such as the famous Tadpole Shrimp, still have cult status in Germany today. The documentation shows how modern and innovative "Pif Gadget" was at the time. At the height of its success, the magazine was perfectly suited to its time: in the early '70s, the gimmick reflected the plastic boom of the time, while towards the end of the same decade it attempted to awaken young readers' environmental awareness. In the 80s, "Pif Gadget" showed the first signs of aging. The magazine was discontinued two years after the end of the USSR. The children's magazine disappeared from the market for years. “Yps” returned to kiosks in Germany in October 2012 as a magazine for adults – with Tadpole Shrimp as an insert.