Butz's Motz: Big on format, small on layout

What it's all about: Over the Christmas and New Year period, a Nespresso poster measuring at least 30×10 meters hung in the venerable Zurich train station concourse. This campaign with George Clooney is one of my favorites in terms of concept. But the way this image idea with the halo was placed and designed on this format is amateurish. According to research, this billboard costs just 80,000 francs for one month. But the apprentice was probably commissioned to come up with a clever design.

My theory: I estimate that 100,000 people pass by Zurich station every day. I asked 30 of them whether they had seen the idea of the halo on Clooney's head. None of them noticed it. McCann Paris had sent the idea and the artwork to the stores. The consultant or the media manager or perhaps the client then decided to make a billboard in the station. A desktopper then quickly redesigned the artwork to this special 30×10 m format. The result: everyone only understands the station, if at all.

This is easy to explain: The superfluous coffee machine distracts from the too-small halo, as do the logos and texts in various typos. Less is more. I have tidied this up. See picture.

The content is the most important thing. If it's not right or has fizzled out, even the hefty price for an advertising poster is money down the drain. My point is that I have often grumbled about this phenomenon.

I suggest that in future SBB let a kind of FIFA decide whether a poster is "authorized to play" or not. They should consider whether it should even be possible to put up such large and ugly posters in this venerable hall. What does Nicki de Saint Phalle have to say about it? Or the architect Röbi Hausmann, who tidied up this hall and restored it to its original splendor? The passengers who hurry through the hall every day concentrate primarily on their platform or on the bar on the left or the Federal or on the treasure they pick up under the clock. Only then do they see the advertising. And if it's not reduced and funny, then, I repeat, of the hundreds of thousands, they'll only understand the station.

The upside is that this year, as an exception, I have decided to write a column entitled "What Theophil liked" instead of "Der Motz von Butz".

Theophil Butz, once a star advertiser (Ringier), now an inspirer and, as of now, a mothballer. "Not an easy role, but a necessary one, which I perform here every fortnight." Please send any relevant information to [email protected].

This poster costs 80,000 francs a month. Probably not a penny was spent on an optimal design. Above the original, below my correction.