"The whole thing degenerates into arbitrariness": This is what SWA Director Roland Ehrler says about the vote in Biel

On Sunday it was clear: The people of Biel want bilingual advertising. This means that in the future, advertisements in the city of Biel must be designed in the two official languages, German and French. With 52.9 percent in favor and 47.1 percent against, the voters accepted the proposal. The voter turnout was 34.4 percent. As the associations Aussenwerbung Schweiz, KS/CS Kommunikation Schweiz and the Swiss Association of Advertisers SWA had already announced in a joint statement (advertisingweek.ch reported), they criticize the revision of the regulations in particular the "compulsion to bilingualism" for advertisements in Biel. The "Biel advertising ban", as the associations say, would stand alone internationally and have negative effects.

Werbewoche.ch spoke exclusively with SWA Director Roland Ehrler after the vote.

Werbewoche.ch: Mr. Ehrler, how are you doing?

Roland Ehrler: Thank you for asking. After a short but intensive voting campaign, I am above all disappointed. Just 576 more votes and the controversial billboard regulations would have been rejected by the Biel electorate. Unfortunately, the city of Biel was always one step ahead and, in our view, simply misinformed the population. After all, Article 5 clearly states that commercial posters "must" be designed in the two official languages! However, the city of Biel interprets its own regulations quite differently and let it be known during the referendum campaign that there was still plenty of room for maneuver and that slogans such as "ici c'est Bienne" from EHC Biel did not have to be translated. As a voter, I would have been a bit confused. What applies now? The strict regulations or the lax implementation? The whole thing thus degenerates into the arbitrariness of a few officials and in the end then leads to an advertising police in Biel!

The total revision comprises 27 articles. Article 5 is a particular thorn in your side. What is it about, if you look at it objectively?

There is no doubt that the regulations deserve a revision after 20 years. However, with the new Article 5 and the compulsory bilingualism (German/French), an unnecessary tightening has been hidden in the regulations. After all, this is a massive encroachment on the economic freedom of the advertising companies guaranteed in the Federal Constitution. In addition, the language requirement also contradicts the Bernese cantonal constitution, which stipulates in Article 50 that the canton and the municipalities should create favorable framework conditions for the economy. The city of Biel is doing exactly the opposite here and is not doing itself or the economy any favors. This was also evident in the non-partisan committee with the Biel FDP, SVP, Partie Radical Romand, GLP, Biel SME's, Handels- und Industrieverein, the EHC Biel and four national associations (AWS, SWA, KS/CS and Promarca).

What impact will this have?

As already mentioned, regulations will soon be in force that are sharply worded and prescribe bilingualism for Biel. At the same time, companies are dependent on the room for maneuver of Biel's officials. And we take the city president, Mr. Fehr, at his word that slogans do not have to be translated. Since a great many posters contain such slogans, perhaps in the end nothing will happen and the regulations will degenerate into a mere paper tiger? As you can see, the legal uncertainty is very high, especially due to the communication of the city of Biel. We will therefore clarify further legal possibilities against the new regulations within the framework of our current objection and together with the committee.

Now the Bernese cantonal constitution prescribes bilingualism for the municipality of Biel - were you caught on the wrong foot?

No, not at all. This article of the cantonal constitution is about the promotion of bilingualism and that is good and right. In Biel-Bienne, for example, bilingualism has been practiced for a long time without any language restrictions. On street signs, in the stores or in the official information to the population. In the case of commercial posters, however, this is simply going too far. Especially when other articles of the same cantonal constitution are being infringed upon, and then even the federal constitution. Even Biel organizations, which otherwise stand up for bilingualism, were against this coercion and the French Partie Radical Romand. They were all of the opinion that one achieves less with coercion than with voluntariness.

As justification for the revision, reference was made to Article 6, according to which the French-speaking minority feels disadvantaged by the excessive proportion of German-language posters. Are there any figures that confirm or refute this?

APG carried out a survey and found that today about 1/3 of the posters in Biel are already displayed in French without any compulsion. This does not mean that the French-speaking minority is not important to the companies. Furthermore, we must not forget that there are still posters in other languages, e.g. in Italian or English. With a strict interpretation of Article 5, these posters would also be prohibited from the date of validity of the new regulations!

Should advertisers have been more considerate of bilingualism?

I do not blame anyone at this point. It was previously the law that any company could advertise in the language it wanted on posters. After all, the companies paid for it. Incidentally, advertising money, of which the city of Biel also received a nice share.

EHC Biel was also part of the opponents' committee. Why?

Quite simply, as an SME, the EHCB is affected by the language constraint like other companies in Biel. The poster campaign for the season opener was last texted in English: "Welcome back: get your ticket now!" Under the new regulations, this would no longer be allowed! And the monolingual "ici c'est Bienne" would also have to be translated on posters, strictly speaking. Even Biel's city president doesn't want that!

As already mentioned, the revision includes 27 articles. Are there other articles that are considered (too) restrictive from the perspective of the advertising clients?

Only Article 5 with the language requirement is really bad. Everything else can be accepted.

How do you assess the forecast? Will the advertising volume, i.e. the budgets for billboard advertising in Biel-Bienne, decline?

The city of Biel writes in its message to the electorate that the revision will have no direct financial impact. On the contrary, they even expect higher fee income for larger formats. However, I think - and we explained this to the city several times during the objection process - that the city will have to reckon with a decline in advertising revenues. No one will rewrite their English poster texts in German and French just for the city of Biel. Furthermore, the legal uncertainty could lead to Biel simply being left out of a national poster campaign in case of doubt.

Their slogan was: "No language compulsion in Biel!" In retrospect, one is always wiser. Shouldn't the consequences of a "yes" vote have been better communicated?

Our NO committee has supported this referendum campaign in particular with a Website, flyers and a poster campaign were realized in record time with the agency in flagranti in Lyss. The effects of the regulations were somewhat more difficult to explain and were therefore the focus of the media work as well as in the social media channels. In the voting campaign, I was most pleased to have direct contact with the people of Biel. When we distributed flyers on two Saturday mornings, there was a lot of good feedback about the campaign and the commitment of the NO committee. The city hardly expected this. In this sense, I think we did a good job and thank everyone for their commitment. In the end, the result of the vote was very close!

Do you fear that this could have a signal effect for other cities?

I hope not and bilingual cities are not so many! The SWA, as an association representing the interests of advertisers, is in any case prepared to continue to campaign against such nonsensical bans.

When does the new regulation come into force?

The regulations will be implemented in the next few months, according to the city of Biel. However, the last word has not yet been spoken...