A fountain of youth grain by grain

 
Lebensmittel Scholz & Friends Zurich grows rice plants in wells for Riso, the organization that promotes rice in Switzerland. 
The oldest evidence to date confirms that humans planted rice 10,000 years before our era. That was in northern Thailand. At the end of the 17th century, this important crop also made it to the New World. The most important rice country in Europe is Italy. Riso, the Swiss rice promotion agency, believes that too few people are aware that this white grain is also grown in Ticino today, alongside fruity Merlot grapes, and that the northernmost rice plantations in the world can be found in southern Switzerland. True to their agency claim "The Orchestra of Ideas", Scholz & Friends Zurich are now moving these plantations even further north. In a campaign for Riso, the Friends had rice plants planted in public fountains in Zurich, Bern, Basel and Zug for two days using a special construction. Passers-by were given the impression of small plantations. With the headline "Rice is a fountain of youth", the fountains were marked with a specially constructed tarpaulin.
The idea of growing rice in a symbolic fountain of youth is, alongside the Riso-Litomobile, a new and unusual idea in outdoor advertising. The campaigns attract attention and direct reactions, as Katrin Seegers from Scholz & Friends is pleased to report. However, the Sponti plantations are only one part of the campaign that Scholz & Friends Zurich is carrying out on behalf of Riso. The aim of the various communication measures is to draw attention to the fact that rice is part of a balanced and healthy diet.
Riso is the association for the promotion of rice consumption in Switzerland. The member companies process, trade or market rice and rice products. By positioning and actively promoting rice as a product, the aim is to sustainably increase rice consumption in Switzerland.
Andreas Panzeri