Clearly copied campaign

After a long campaign break, the small Zurich-based specialist publisher Aba Bertschi Verlags AG is back on the advertising pages with its multimedia agency profiles. The not-so-new BSW competitor product, a platform for member agencies, makes it possible - or necessary. After all, Portraits has been providing information on facts, people and campaigns in the Swiss communications industry for a good 30 years. In order to underline the indispensability of the renowned and oldest industry guide, the publisher commissioned Hesskiss, the newcomer agency of the year 2002, to develop an advertising campaign following an evaluation: "We asked all advertisers in the industry guide to put their likenesses on the photocopier and take a slightly different self-portrait for Portraits," says Tamás Kiss. The result was extraordinary pictures of newcomers, established agency cracks and greats such as Stefan Vogler or Jean Etienne Aebi, "who actually managed to get his Natural American Spirits in the picture," says Kiss in amazement. And so a few dozen advertising experts plucked out their noses to photograph the basis for an independent subject. The numbered heads are broken up with the information that the guide contains agency profiles with hundreds of other portraits of communication specialists. "The fact that such an impressive number of advertisers were persuaded to take part," says Kiss, "probably speaks not only for the vanity of this professional group, but certainly also for how well anchored the product is in the industry." He does not hide the fact that participation is of course also the best form of self-promotion.
Putting their faces on the copier glass for Hesskiss: Mirjam Susta and Jean Etienne Aebi.

Luca Aloisi