The Council of States is maintaining its opposition to the liberalization of television advertising for beer and wine. By 19 votes to 17, it rejected the Federal Council's proposal, approved by the National Council, to allow such advertising in future.
At present, advertising for beer and wine in Switzerland is prohibited on all SRG channels and in the Swiss advertising windows of foreign television providers. Local television stations and private radio stations, on the other hand, are allowed to advertise these light alcoholic beverages.
According to the EU "Television without Frontiers" Directive, advertising windows broadcast abroad are only subject to the laws of the broadcaster's country. As advertising for beer and wine is permitted in Germany, this must also apply to German private broadcasters operating Swiss advertising windows. Following Switzerland's participation in the EU film promotion program "Media", which requires Switzerland to respect the EU Television Directive, Switzerland must do so all the more. The Federal Council therefore proposed relaxing the advertising ban for SRG broadcasters as well.
For the third time, the Council of States did not want to hear about it. For the majority of the small chamber, liberalizing this form of advertising runs counter to prevention efforts. Developments in neighboring countries - with the exception of Germany - are also pointing in a different direction.
The bill will now go to the National Council for a third and final time after the Council of States voted no again. Peter Bieri (CVP/ZG) explained that there was a good chance that the Council of States would then prevail in the subsequent agreement conference.

Swiss Post has responded to the comments made at the general meeting of the Swiss Press Association: Swiss Post is only passing on a small part of the deficit it incurs from newspaper and magazine distribution to publishers. Just under a fifth would be covered by the planned price increases for 2010. The loss of subsidies and inflation have further exacerbated the situation and the deficit amounts to almost CHF 100 million, as Swiss Post spokesman Oliver Flüeler told the SDA news agency on Thursday.
Swiss Post understands the difficult economic situation of publishers and is therefore planning to pass on just under a fifth of the deficit to publishers. The remaining costs of around CHF 80 million will be borne by Swiss Post. The plan is to increase prices for the transportation of newspapers without press subsidies by 5 percent, while the maximum increase for titles with press subsidies will be 12 percent. Even after the planned increase, the transport costs for newspapers and magazines are still around 30 percent cheaper in Switzerland compared to neighboring countries such as Germany or Austria, as Flüeler emphasized.
The publishers had already been accommodated in 2008. When the federal subsidies for press promotion were reduced by 50 million in 2007, Swiss Post had borne 30 million itself. As a result of the rate increase at that time, 20 million was taken over by the publishers, concluded Flüeler.

The annual general meeting of the Swiss Press took place in Interlaken on Thursday. Filippo Lombardi - CEO of TImedia Holding SA - and Albert P. Stäheli - CEO of the NZZ Group - were newly elected to the Executive Committee of the Publishers Association. The Executive Committee was thus expanded by one seat. President Hanspeter Lebrument and the other members of the Executive Committee were confirmed for a further term of office.
The Executive Committee and members expressed their thanks to Beat Lauber, who is stepping down, for his great commitment to the Publishers Association. At today's general meeting, the previous managing director, Hanspeter Kellermüller, was also officially thanked and bid farewell after around six years of service to the association. He will be succeeded at the end of September by Urs F. Meyer, who was welcomed by the members.
The association management presented its members with a large number of ongoing campaigns and projects and also showed itself to be in a solid financial position, according to an SP press release on Thursday. The current economic crisis is also having an impact on the association's activities. Nevertheless, a positive result is expected for the current year.
The development of postal tariffs for press delivery is currently at the center of the agenda. According to the press release, Swiss Post recently announced significant price increases, against which it will intervene with the relevant authorities. The Publishers Association will also campaign for more favorable rates for press distribution in the current revision of the Postal Act, as the distribution of press titles ensures the basic supply of Swiss Post through its capacity utilization. Due to the lack of competition, however, publishers are confronted with excessive prices. Politicians are called upon to set a maximum price of 10 centimes per copy by law.
In addition, local press with small circulations should be able to benefit from special discounts as before. The association is advocating an extension of the existing indirect press subsidies. The federal contribution to Swiss Post should be increased to CHF 30 million. This would make an important contribution to the press, which is important in terms of state policy, without jeopardizing its independence, the association concludes.
At the annual conference of the Scheizer Presse association, Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer said that the media do not perform their role of information, discussion and control enough. He said that there was a lack of diversity in terms of content and a competition of ideas. In addition, the media also suppressed information and thus undermined the democratic formation of opinion. In reporting, evaluations are interspersed - subliminally and hidden. The media tended to merge political commentary, entertainment, satire and information. This crosses the line into dishonesty. Instead of confronting hypocrisy with the truth, the media behave like courtesans. They move in the environment of power - sometimes pandering to this, sometimes pandering to that, always pleasing the emperor. The media pretend to wear the costumes of professionalism, objectivity and neutrality, but in reality they go as naked as the emperor.
To counter these evils, Maurer advocates diversity of content. This is something different from mere title diversity. In this diversity, even partisan media are not a disadvantage, but a gain in clarity. It stimulates the competition of ideas. And finally, persistent, defiant control of the state brings more to the citizens than courtesan whispers.
"We need to think about how we can improve the quality of the media and strengthen competition," said Maurer. We need something like an anti-trust law against information monopolists and media opinion cartels. We should also consider whether the Competition Commission should not be tasked with protecting the free market as well as the free market for ideas.

In an agency presentation held at the end of last year, Marti & Partner came out on top and won the advertising mandate from Schulthess Maschinen. Based on a newly formulated brand positioning, the advertisers from Zurich Seefeld have developed an umbrella campaign that includes a TV commercial and advertisements as well as POS material, brochures and specialist advertisements.
According to the agency, it is in the nature of washing machines and tumble dryers that they usually sit in the basement and don't attract much attention. The agency wants to counteract this by staging emotional values for Schulthess. With Fiona Hefti, this is also given a face. The result is an image-emphasized campaign, an emotional TV commercial and an independent brochure concept.
The campaign can be seen on television and in advertisements from September.
Responsible at Schulthess Maschinen: Hanspeter Stamm (Head of Marketing, Sales/Customer Service), Daniela Koch (Head of Marketing) and Bernardo Botella (Head of Advertising). Responsible at Marti & Partner: Peter Marti, Thomas Krebs, Anita Kittel, Nadine Kündig, Claude Catsky, Beat Staudacher, Simon Keller. Photography: Sabine Liewald. Film: Riccardo Signorell , Claudio Zuccholini. Sound: kirschnermusic. Styling/Hair/MakeUp: StyleCouncil

To the spot

Jakob Nef, CEO & Head of Consumer Addresses at AZ Direct, will step down on September 30, 2009.
from his post and hands over the management of the company after 13 years of activity to
Christian Huldi and Claudio Piazza . They will manage AZ Direct together from October 1, 2009.

After 13 years at the helm of AZ Direct and the former dm-plus, Jakob Nef would like to move on to new challenges. Jakob Nef will continue to work for AZ Direct with a reduced workload from September 30, 2009, turning his attention to his key customers on the one hand and taking on strategic projects on the other until his retirement in 2011.
Jakob Nef will be succeeded as of October 1, 2009 by Christian Huldi as CEO and Claudio
Piazza as COO. Together they will form the new management team. According to a statement from the agency, both Huldi and Piazza are already members of the AZ Direct management team.

Christian Huldi's company "dr.huldi.management.ch" has been part of the AZ Direct Group since January 2008. He also works as a specialist lecturer at various institutions and schools in Switzerland and abroad.

Claudio Piazza has been Head of Business Addresses & Sales at AZ Direct and the
former SPDS. He completed his direct marketing studies at the Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Marketing BAW in Munich.

The Swiss food multinational Nestlé is said to be illegally using the name Weight Watchers on ice cream packaging. This was reported by Cash.ch on Thursday. According to a statement of claim filed at the Federal Court in Manhattan, the ice cream producer "Skinny Cow" of the Nestlé-owned company Dreyer's used the name and brand Weight Watchers on websites and packaging. Which seems understandable, given the brand name: "Skinny Cow". In addition, Nestlé's ready meal brand "Lean Cousine" also infringed the trademark rights of Weight Watchers. But the name theft is not enough. Nestlé is also said to have made quick use of the Weight Watchers points system for weight loss.
Weigth Watchers is now demanding unspecified damages and an immediate end to the trademark infringement. The company has built up its apparently theft-worthy brand name, including its customer base, over the last 46 years.

A study presented under the umbrella of the "Zukunft Digital" research association compares the effectiveness of the two media channels online and TV: On behalf of the Plan.Net Group and United Internet Media, Facit Digital, the research institute for digital media, investigated how commercials shown on the Internet affect brand values in comparison to their broadcast on television.
The result: in all relevant factors such as brand awareness, advertising recall, relevant set and brand sympathy, commercials - whether shown online or on television - have the same effect on the test subjects: The contact quality of both media in terms of brand values has a "conversion rate" of 1 to 1. Media-specific added values of online, for example through interaction possibilities, were not taken into account as part of the study, as they were not the focus of the research interest, according to a statement.
For the study, online users were asked about commercials for the brands Bahlsen, BMW, Cortal Consors, DKV, Drano, MediaMarkt, Parship, Tchibo and Wüstenrot. In the studio test, the test subjects watched a television program and surfed the WEeb.de portal. The advertising clips were shown in natural usage situations in the form of single spots and in advertising blocks on television as well as on the Internet as a pre-roll ad and as a "Logout MaxiMotion Spot", a flash-based spot shown exclusively on a large screen when leaving the Web.de services that require registration.

From now on, media planners will be able to use the information reached on the Internet and via television to
moving image contacts on the basis of brand-oriented advertising impact, says Manfred Klaus, Managing Director of the Plan.Net Group. Now it is important to make targeted use of the economic advantages of the individual channels: For example, younger target groups can usually be reached more economically on the Internet than on television, but television generally has a greater reach. Coordinated planning of the two audiovisual channels can thus achieve economic benefits of 30
percent and more achievable.

This spring, Jung von Matt/Limmat presented the new campaign for Vögele-Shoes. Just in time for the fall collection, the models were once again wrapped in tissue paper and placed in shoe boxes. In keeping with the season, earthy tones dominate these follow-up motifs. New film sequences have also been created to breathe life into the models.
Responsible at Vögele Shoes: Daniel Widmer (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Lukas Frei, Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction), Inken Rohweder (Art Direction), Samuel Christ (Text), Nora Vögeli (Graphics), Martin Samsel, Jasmin Schmid (Consulting), Ilonka Galliard (Art Buying), Paco Peregrin (Photography).

Last Saturday, the time had come again: The Swiss Text Academy selected the winners of the Swiss Text Award 2009. The Academy nominated a total of 27 copywriters for the award. Seven of them finally won the highest award of the Swiss Text Award - the "Texterfeder".
The Sphères - bar, book, stage - in Zurich West was filled to capacity as the highlight of the evening approached: the presentation of the Swiss Text Award 2009. In front of around 70 copywriters and guests, the Swiss Text Academy selected the winners of the Swiss Text Award 2009. The junior copywriters won in four categories, the senior copywriters in three: In total, seven copywriters were honored with the "Texterfeder", the highest award of the Swiss Text Award. The winners of the Swiss Text Award 2009 are:
Junior copywriter
Simon B. Bühler (category Customer Magazine / Employee Magazine / Annual Report), Stefan Grob (category Mailing / Flyer / Brochure), Corinne Dubacher (category Website / Digital Publisher). Karina Turek (Category Advertisement / Poster).
Senior Copywriter
Nicole Althaus (Customer Magazine / Employee Magazine / Annual Report category), Rita Capiaghi (Mailing / Flyer / Brochure category), Andy Aguirre Eglin (Website / Digital Publisher category).
The Swiss Text Award was established by the Swiss Text Academy primarily as a prize for promoting young talent. The jury awarded young copywriters with regard to modern German business language. As more and more senior copywriters applied for the Swiss Text Award in recent years, the academy expanded the award for senior copywriters to three categories in 2009, according to a statement from the Swiss Text Academy. Starting next year, there will be a fourth category for senior copywriters - the "Advertisement / Poster" category.
Registration for the Swiss Text Award 2010 opens on March 1, 2010, and the award ceremony will be held in September, as every year.

The Migros Club School has entrusted the Weber Harbeke Partners agency with publicizing its range of photography courses. For the photography courses, the agency invites streetcar passengers to search for motifs. One
awakens the desire to take photos where the motifs are served up: on the windows of buses and streetcars, the agency explains in a press release. Transparent window stickers, which imitate the viewfinder of a camera, invite passengers to discover photogenic images for themselves on the journey - with a hint to improve their skills in a course at the Club School.
The campaign can be seen throughout Switzerland from the beginning of September.
Responsible at the Coordination Office of the Club Schools, Zurich: Peter Kyburz (Head of Communications), Manuela Youssef (Advertising Project Manager), Natascha Obermayr (Head of Design & Culture). Responsible at Weber Harbeke Partners, Zurich: Max Weber Thomas Harbeke(CD), Karin Both (consultant), Christian Sidow (text), Priska Meyer (AD), Pablo Scheidegger (graphics).

Long-time Tages-Anzeiger editor Roger Keller has been appointed Communications Officer at the Canton of Zurich's Department of Finance. Keller will take up his new post on January 1, 2010. He will be responsible for communication on topics such as financial, tax and personnel policy.
Keller studied history, geography and journalism at the University of Zurich, as announced by the Finance Directorate on Thursday. He had been an editor at the Tages-Anzeiger since 1988.

The Ogilvy Interactive agency has created a campaign for the new Bistrot Baguette from Dr. Oetker Switzerland. The latest TV commercials are intended to show the love and care with which the Bistro Baguette is prepared, the agency said in a press release.
To support the messages of the TV commercial, the agency has created Oetker.ch/bistro
developed a below-the-line promotion in which the user can quickly and easily discover why Dr. Oetker Bistro's baguette is a tasty French delight with a memory game. The main protagonists of the TV commercial form the central element of the memory game. Once the user has uncovered two identical cards, the person depicted explains why Bistro Baguette is so delicious. Once the user has uncovered all pairs of cards, they can take part in the competition and win a voucher worth CHF 5,000 for a vacation home in Provence. Traffic on the microsite is generated by a running line in the TV commercial, banners on Zattoo and Wilmaa, the Dr. Oetker newsletter and a promotional banner on Oetker.ch.
The promotion for Bistro Baguette was also implemented for the Austrian market.
Responsible at Bistro Baguette: Pascal Remmert. Responsible at Ogilvy Interactive: Doreen Roth, Sandra Pellny.