Last but not least: Guerrilla warfare in Aargau
Argovia, a local radio station in Aargau, has come up with a brazen—but not entirely unoriginal—guerrilla marketing campaign. The law-abiding canton seems a bit overwhelmed by the situation.
Aargau is once again littered with election posters, as the polls will soon be calling. Radio Argovia has been inspired by the almost inflationary use of these advertising media and has mixed its own election propaganda in with the existing ones in a night and fog campaign throughout the canton. Instead of political candidates, drivers are confronted by the presenters of a morning show. With smarmy gestures, overdrawn laughter and election slogans that are guaranteed not to be broken ("Promises: nothing at all!").
The posters generate a lot of attention, but are illegal. "Of course, Radio Argovia cannot benefit from the upcoming elections to put up its advertising for the radio without a permit," Felicitas Siebert, Head of the Building Permit Department of the Canton of Aargau, told the Aargauer newspaper. Marco Kugel, Head of Marketing at Radio Argovia, is aware of this. No permission was obtained. "We wanted to counteract the poster forest with this guerrilla action and draw attention to our morning show". They would take the risk of a fine and hope not to have to remove the posters straight away - because Radio Argovia had invested several thousand francs in the campaign.
Several days have now passed and the posters are in perfect health. You could almost think that the canton had been taken by surprise by the brazen action and Radio Argovia's willingness to accept a fine. And if one day the combined building authorities arrive to dispose of the printed troublemakers, Radio Argovia will have achieved the aim of the campaign several times over anyway - almost for free. (hae)
