Fewer decisions against surreptitious advertisers

 The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has not carried out any spot checks on surreptitious advertising in the current year. This was stated by Bakom spokesperson Caroline Sauser at the request of Werbewoche. "OFCOM has taken the new RTVA as an opportunity to revise its practice in the area of advertising and sponsorship. In order to give event organizers time to adjust to this new practice, we have refrained from carrying out spot checks for the time being," explained Sauser. At the beginning of next year, the Federal Office intends to hold events to inform radio and television broadcasters about the new situation. From 2008, OFCOM will then also return to the hunt for surreptitious advertisers by means of spot checks. This year, only five to ten decisions were made in this regard, whereas in 2006, around 20 decisions were made against surreptitious advertisers. However, not everyone got away unpunished despite this year's break: as reported by the Sonntagszeitung, the Sat.1 Switzerland program "Joya rennt" was considered by the Federal Administrative Court to be surreptitious advertising. With this ruling, the judges upheld a decision by the Bakom. The "Celebrations" program also violated the provisions of the RTVA: In the program, a car brand was brought to the fore for which presenter and producer Björn Hering worked as a brand ambassador.