Bergün worries about those who stayed at home and introduces a photo ban
The mountain village of Bergün in Graubünden has imposed a village-wide ban on photography. The publicity stunt is causing a stir, even if not everyone seems to understand it.
On Monday evening, the municipal assembly decided to pass a new law imposing a "community-wide and cordial ban on photography". The ban was passed very clearly by 46 votes to 2.
It has been scientifically proven that beautiful vacation photos on social media make viewers unhappy if they are not in the place depicted, writes the municipality. The danger is particularly high in Bergün because the village in the Albula Valley, which is located at almost 1,400 meters above sea level, has particularly beautiful landscapes to offer. "We don't want to make people outside the municipality unhappy with photos and warmly invite them to visit and experience Bergün for themselves," says municipality president Peter Nicolay in the press release.
Fine for infringement
In the press release, Bergün expresses its willingness to enforce the ban. The municipality reserves the right to levy a fine of five francs in the event of non-compliance. The fine will be donated in full to the protection of the Alps in the Albula Valley. A private security company, which already acts as the village police, will collect the fines. There are already half a dozen no-photography signs in the picturesque village with its large Engadine houses.
Even Bergün-Fillisur Tourism complies with the ban and did not want to send any photos of the village and landscape to the media when asked. "The ban is legally binding. We are abiding by it," tourism director Marc-Andrea Barandun told the SDA news agency. All photos have already been removed from the tourism organization's Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts, and the next step will be to clean up the homepage.
Barandun can live with the ban. "People have to come here themselves to see how beautiful it is," he says. And when the visitors are here, they have a much nicer experience if they don't keep taking photos.
The village phone is followed by a photo ban
It's not hard to guess that this is a campaign - presumably orchestrated once again from Zurich. In the past year, Tschlin has already been involved with the "Village phone" proved that it is the quietest municipality in Switzerland. At the time, Jung von Matt announced to Werbewoche that other picturesque mountain villages in Graubünden would benefit from similar individual campaigns.
Meanwhile, far fewer people seem to be aware that the campaign is not entirely serious and should be taken with a wink. This is how the reporting on 20min.ch countless outraged comments (see excerpts below). Once again, it is clear that many commentators do not even read the articles, but limit themselves to the title, photo and lead. The article mentions right at the beginning that the whole thing is "of course another original advertising stunt from Graubünden". Also on Blick.ch a conspicuous number of commentators react with little understanding and great anger.
Bergün has therefore already achieved a considerable, free media presence through the campaign. Whether it could also become an own goal with all the angry readers remains to be seen. (hae/SDA)
