His face is masked, his voice sharp and his fingers dig straight into the open wounds of the French state apparatus. Not unusual so far for a rapper. But the man who calls himself "Le Brigadier" and claims on his website that he wants to "break the law of silence and denounce the working methods of the police" must therefore fear for his job. He has been a police officer in the French department of Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris for over ten years, he says. In every department, in other words, where over one and a half million people live in an area of 236 square kilometers, where unemployment is in the high double-digit percentage range and where weeks of youth unrest broke out in 2005, the "Brigadier" has published four songs on the Internet so far. He sings about problems with the police, suicidal officers and "false culprits" who are only turned into criminals by the police. His plan: he wants to release his debut album at the beginning of 2009 and then retire from the police force. Rap is a kind of self-therapy for him to cope with the pressure of his job, he told the newspaper Le Parisien. However, it is quite possible that his identity as a police officer is just a marketing ploy to boost sales of his CD. Perhaps Sarkozy is now launching one of his loyal followers to correct the image of the police.

Following the merger with Wincare and just in time for its 50th anniversary, Switzerland's fourth-largest health insurer has now given itself a new look. Sanitas engaged the Zurich agency Rod Kommunikation for this purpose. The agency developed a multi-stage campaign that focuses on the price advantages of Sanitas' insurance products and attempts to position the brand as a health insurer with an excellent price/performance ratio.Rod conveys the message with the depiction of small and big dreams, visualized in the form of green-wrapped gifts. In this way, the motto "More money left over for everything that moves you" is to be disseminated in a far-reaching campaign. In a first step, a TV commercial is planned, which will be followed by posters and advertisements, promotions, online activities and a direct marketing concept.

Renzen Communications has created an advertising campaign for Knauf, a specialist in drywall and gypsum construction systems, which focuses on the skin-friendly properties of gypsum as a natural building material. The "Skin" concept focuses on the materiality of gypsum and its skin-like properties. This puts people at the center of the campaign: feeling good, warmth, sensuality, a pleasant room climate, natural moisture regulation, breathability, optimal heat balance or even pH value - these are topics that can be highlighted and illustrated by comparing gypsum/skin. Full-page advertisements were placed in special interest magazines and the trade press. Responsible at Knauf Schweiz AG, Reinach: Christoph Vogt (Head of Marketing).
Responsible at Renzen Communications: Emmanuelle Friedli (CD Art), Hanno Lietz (CD Text/Concept), Frédéric Renzen, Luca Pibiri (Consulting).

Since August 1, two new concept writers/copywriters have been at work at Stadelhoferstrasse: Jan Krohn, who most recently wrote copy for By Heart and before that for Lowe, among others, wants to provide creative highlights here, as does Claude Catsky, who, after his time as a CD at Euro RSCG, feels the desire to work as a campaign maker again, as Publicis announced. CD Martin Denecke was also very pleased about the two prominent newcomers because a lot of work awaits the two new Publicis clients such as Swiss and Pfister.

The M&M Media agency prevailed over three other agencies in a competitive pitch and won the Scout24 Group's media budget. According to Frank Gerber, CMO of the Scout24 Group, the pragmatic way of working and the creative media planning, particularly in the online sector, were the decisive factors in winning the contract.The pitch was conducted in a tough and extremely professional manner, M&M Managing Director Rolf Suter was quoted as saying in the press release on Monday. The head of the Glattbrugg-based agency added that he was proud to have been engaged by such an innovative company.

Polls are as old as the web itself: a question with two or more answers that the user answers with a click of the mouse. Now polls are becoming interactive and entering the Web 2.0 age: anyone can post polls online free of charge at Swisspoll.ch. According to its operators, the Swisspoll web portal is intended to become a real opinion community. In contrast to traditional market research, where surveyors elicit opinions from respondents by telephone or in person, the answers on Swisspoll are given voluntarily. The only incentive to answer is to see the interim result with the other answers. A small community of registered Swisspoll users has already formed who regularly answer the new polls. Swisspoll aims to enrich traditional market research with a new tool: For 180 francs, a few minutes' effort and within 48 hours, Swisspoll wants to provide its customers with answers to closed questions in future. According to the Zurich-based start-up company, whose website has been officially in operation since August, this should enable a business plan, a product name or an advertising idea to be assessed more quickly than before.

On Sunday evening, the Orange Cinema at Zürichhorn came to an end with the preview of the British comedy "Son of Rambow". Peter Hürlimann from Cinerent, who is responsible for organizing the event in Zurich, Basel and Bern, speaks of a good year: "We have a successful season behind us, despite the occasionally mixed weather." With 52,105 admissions, the number of spectators increased by 7.3 percent compared to the previous year.

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Media Minister Leuenberger has apparently personally put out a false report: In an interview with the Neue Luzerner Zeitung published on Saturday, the Federal Councillor said that SVP man Ulrich Giezendanner had ordered an opinion poll on the construction of a second Gotthard road tunnel and then leaked it to the Sonntagszeitung. He therefore casts doubt on the validity of the survey, according to which a majority want the second tunnel. In general, Leuenberger does not seem to be a fan of opinion polls: "A referendum is something completely different. You're not surprised by a phone call while you're cooking fish and have to say yes or no immediately so that nothing burns in the kitchen." The piquant thing - to stick with kitchen jargon - is that the Sonntagszeitung vehemently rejects the claim that it published a survey commissioned by Giezendanner: in fact, the newspaper itself commissioned the survey from the opinion research institute Isopublic. According to Sonntagszeitung editor-in-chief Andreas Durisch wants to see the Federal Council's false statement corrected in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. It will be interesting to see whether his colleagues in Central Switzerland respond. And whether Leuenberger will comment on the issue in his blog. He likes to criticize the media there, for example under the nice title "I am the summer slump".

On Liechtenstein's national holiday last Friday, the television station 1 FL TV went on air for the first time. In the evening, recordings of the celebrations in Vaduz were broadcast in the Principality. As of Monday, normal operations will begin with a daily one-hour program, as the managing director of the station's owner, Peter Heeb, told the news agency SDA. News and weather reports, a talk show and a report are planned. Later, a one-hour program will be added under the name "Movie Night". The program will be broadcast using analogue technology on Liechtenstein's cable network. The broadcaster is owned by Media Holding AG, in which Kanal 1 in Vienna and Heeb und Partner in Schlieren ZH hold shares. The Viennese company already operates the channel U1 TV in German-speaking Switzerland.

The Publicitas Index for July reflects the bitter reality: the volume of advertising in the Swiss daily press is currently modest. The index fell by 0.5 points to 95.6 points in July. The index had already fallen by 1.5 points in June. According to Publicitas, newspapers are lacking commercial advertising in particular. National advertising customers such as car importers, banks and telecoms companies are currently reluctant to invest, Publicitas reported on Friday. In addition, the European Football Championship in June and the summer slump in July were inhibiting factors, and the subsidiary of the Lausanne advertising marketer PubliGroupe also sees signs that the growth in job advertisements could slow down. After four years of almost uninterrupted growth, job advertisements have reached a high level and are now only developing modestly. The index of job advertisements rose by 0.1 points to 199.2 points in July.

New appointments have been made to the marketing and online management positions of the Swiss TV magazines Tele, TV-Star, TV2 and TVvier at the Axel Springer Switzerland publishing house. With immediate effect, Christoph Büeler will be responsible for the Internet presence of the four TV magazines as Head of Online. Marie-Anne Cobigo-Hostettler is the new Head of Marketing for the title group.Christoph Büeler comes from Ringier, where he was Technical Director for Blick Online. The 36-year-old succeeds Martin Gnos, who left the publishing house at the end of June. Marie-Anne Cobigo-Hostettler was previously Head of Marketing at Schulthess Verlag. Axel Springer Switzerland has created a new position for her as Head of Marketing. In doing so, the media company is underlining the great importance of TV magazines, according to a press release. Last year, Axel Springer Switzerland expanded its portfolio in the TV magazine sector and took over the titles Tele, TV2 and TV vier from Ringier.