For ten days, car manufacturers present their latest models at the Geneva Motor Show. This year, at the 78th Motor Show, car giant Ford, for example, is showing us the vehicle with which it intends to vie for the top ranks of the SUV market. Maserati rubs our noses in the Gran Turismo S with 440 horsepower and makes us forget for a brief moment - hello, dear climate - that it should have been totally out of fashion to buy such cars long ago. But even for those who just yawn at the sight of double exhaust pipes, leather sports seats and terrifying air intakes, the motor show - thanks to Blick - has its charms. The web portal of the Swiss tabloid newspaper is organizing the Miss Autosalon competition for the tenth time this year. 14 hostesses from various exhibitors compete against each other in this beauty contest. The winner is then chosen by online voting and a jury of experts.
Anyone who finds such a choice à la "powerful machines and hot curves" beyond good taste can at least console themselves with the fact that, according to insider reports, the girls earn quite well and are said to have a blast in the evenings after work. Anyone who spends ten hours a day sliding around on hoods deserves it.

 In a consultation response, the Swiss Advertising Association has spoken out against advertising bans, pointing out what it sees as contradictory definitions. The consultation focused on the Canton of Zurich's ordinance on combating the abuse of addictive substances. The association advocates that private buildings with commercial events or services such as cinemas, concert halls or shopping centers should not be subject to an advertising ban, which is expressly not provided for in the new health law. The association is also campaigning for both smoking and advertising to be permitted in unenclosed areas of public buildings. Specifically, this concerns the term "public buildings", which the association believes is regulated in a contradictory manner. Swiss Advertising is insisting that the term for advertising bans and smoking bans be handled uniformly and that public railroad station concourses, for example, be excluded from the bans.

 The Lucerne cantonal council will discuss the current TV license applications on Tuesday. The topic has been placed on the agenda because a motion by SP cantonal councillor Giorgio Pardini has been declared urgent, as government spokesman Urs Hangartner told Werbewoche. Pardini wants clarification as quickly as possible on the government's position on the two applications from Tele Tell and Tell 1, reports 20 Minuten. Tele Tell belongs to AZ Medien and has been broadcasting in Central Switzerland for 15 years. The application for Tele 1, on the other hand, comes from LZ Medien, which was previously on board with a small stake in Tele Tell. Cantonal Councillor Pardini fears that the "monopoly position of LZ Medien in Central Switzerland" would be further strengthened if the license were to go to Tele 1. According to Hangartner, once the cantonal council has given its opinion on the issue, a statement from the government council can be expected within two weeks at the earliest. The consultation period for the concessions had actually already expired on February 20, but Lucerne seems to be struggling with a response. "Two monopolists are competing against each other, which doesn't make the situation easy," Hangartner commented to Werbewoche.

The film "Omega Man" launches a large-scale service offensive by Swisscom, focusing on proximity to customers and the great importance of customer service. The spot shows a young man typing away on his cell phone in a busy cafeteria, lost in thought. When he turns to his colleague for technical advice, he suddenly disappears without a trace. Not only that: the entire cafeteria is empty. Not a single person can be found on the entire university campus. The young man steps out into the city, but it too is deserted. The whole city? No, he finally finds help at the Swisscom store. The film is part of a package of measures that also includes an online competition, posters, advertisements, internal communications and various campaigns. The integrated appearance was designed by the Zurich advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat.

Responsible at Swisscom:
Marc Werner (Head of Marketing & Sales), Thomas Ulrich (Head of Marketing Communication), Roger Renfer, Peter Schilde, Patrizio Pivirotto (Advertising Management). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Alexander Jaggy, Markus Rottmann, Michael Rottmann (Creative Direction), David Hanselmann, Hisham Kharma (Art Direction), Samuel Knaus, Sergio Penzo (Text), Matthias Fürst (Graphics), Didi Knall (FFF), Martin Samsel (Strategy), Sebastian Durband, Jasmin Schmid, Dennis Busch (Consulting). Condor Films (production): Michael Fueter (director), Lukas Strebel (camera), Philipp Petersson (producer), Sven Budelmann (editing). Spacetrain (music). Studio Bellerive (sound studio).

 
To mark Knorrli's 60th birthday, JWT+H+F launched a new campaign. At the heart of the promotional activities is the website developed by JWT+H+F partner agency Dotpulse. On it, the 1000 best Swiss family recipes are collected. Individual recipes are taken from the constantly growing pool of recipes collected on the website to be used to develop advertisements, trade ads, POS material and a recipe brochure. Individual women who uploaded their recipes to the Knorr website were asked to be photographed for the campaign. There they appear right next to the respective recipe.  
Responsible at JWT+H+F:
Mike Krüll (Creative Direction/Text), Isa McInnes (Art Direction), Sebastian Day (Graphics), Rainer Bühler (Strategic Planning), Petra Nigg, Cyprian Sutter (Consulting). Responsible at Unilever Switzerland: Reto Gamper (Category Director Savory), Christian Schenk, Nadja Schweizer (Brand Manager).

 From March 4, the commercial Swiss programs and advertising windows of the TV channels Sat.1 and Kabel eins marketed by Cinecom will also be available on Cablecom's basic digital service. The digital activation complements the analog broadcasting of the two channels. This increases the reach by around 253,000 households, as Cinecom announced.

 
It helps personal networking, but harms the economy due to its addictive potential: the Facebook community platform. Werbewoche has already reported several times on various phenomena in connection with the leading global community network, where over 200,000 Swiss people are already registered. After a number of politicians abroad had already set up a self-managed profile page and thus made contact with parts of their electorate, Neuchâtel student Bertil Suter wanted to transfer the idea to the seven Swiss Federal Councillors. He set up profiles for all of them (see also ) and then hoped, with the help of public pressure, that the ministers would one day take over the profiles themselves. 
 
 
In all probability, however, this will now not happen. As the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten reported on Monday, the head of the FDFA, Micheline Calmy-Rey, has now had her profile blocked. The spokesperson for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Philipp Jeannerat, said that contact had therefore been made with those responsible at Facebook last week. The virtual poking of a member of the Federal Council therefore remains a utopia for the time being.
 
 
 
On Monday, Facebook launched a German version of its social network offering. From now on, German-speaking countries can access the German website, which is nothing more than a translation of the original site, by selecting the homepage www.facebook.com. Facebook enlisted the help of its members: Over 2000 German-speaking users translated the pages in less than two weeks. If the translators disagreed, a vote was held. Although this method is inexpensive, it is not entirely convincing: the German page often looks sloppy due to the clumsy and incomplete translation, criticizes the German industry website Kress.de.
 
There will not be a German Facebook branch, business will be conducted from the company headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

 
SRG is preparing to tackle a hot potato. For one week in April, the topic of the integration of migrants will take center stage on all radio and television stations as well as online.  
During the theme week "We others - nous autres - noi altri - nus auters" from April 7 to 13, SRG will try to cover the entire spectrum of the topic. Radio, television and multimedia have realized partly coherent programmes. The topic will be discussed, analyzed and illustrated in all formats - information, documentary, fiction and entertainment. The aim of the theme week is to convey as comprehensive a picture as possible of integration in Switzerland.
 
Around 1.5 million people from abroad live permanently in Switzerland. That is 20.6 percent of the total population. These people have come to Switzerland for a wide variety of reasons; many will stay here, some only temporarily. They are all part of the society that we call "ours". Is this also their society? Do we want them to belong to this society? Do they want it? - SRG's various media will soon be investigating questions like these. This is the first comprehensive theme week in all four parts of the country in its history.

 
According to a report in the Sonntagszeitung, the NZZ has hired the well-known management consultancy Roland Berger. Insiders speak of a "strategy check", writes the newspaper.  
In addition to NZZ and NZZ am Sonntag, the NZZ Group, which is known for its confusing structure and inconsistent strategy, also includes Freie Presse Holding, in which Publigroupe holds a 25 percent stake. This holding company bundles the interests in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, several Zurich regional newspapers and the St. Galler Tagblatt. While the NZZ is suffering from declining readership figures and falling advertising revenues, the regional publishers in St. Gallen and Lucerne continue to earn good money and are insisting on more autonomy. A review of the group's internal strategy does not seem to be the worst idea.

 The jury of the Swiss Poster Award has evaluated over 500 posters submitted for the fourth edition of the competition and shortlisted a number of them. In quantitative terms, the numbers of the previous year have not been reached, but the jury has noted a generally higher quality in the posters submitted, according to a press release. The award aims to focus more on the design quality of the posters submitted. The number of jury members has been increased from eleven to seventeen. These include personalities from the fields of design, photography and typography as well as art directors from advertising agencies. The jury selected the winner of the "Swiss Poster Award" from the nominated subjects and awarded a special prize. All Swiss Poster Award prizes will be presented at the APG Poster Night on May 8, 2008 in the Maag Event Hall in Zurich.
The following works made it onto the shortlist:
Culture category
Fantoche, International Festival for Animated Films (Bringolf Irion Vögeli GmbH)
Helmhaus Zurich: Peter Regli (Markus Bucher)
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich: This Side up (Bonbon)
Zurich Opera House: L'Italiana in Algerie (Studio D. Geissbühler)
Swiss National Museum: On a delicate mission (Publicis)
Theater Aeternam: The Arabian Night (Mixer, Erich Brechbühl)
Category Public Services
Mühlehalde home for the blind (Ruf Lanz)
Federal Office of Public Health: Stop Aids (Euro RSCG Switzerland)
SUVA: Wear a bicycle helmet (Ruf Lanz)
SUVA: Evolution (Ruf Lanz)
SUVA: Chainsaws (Ruf Lanz)
International Human Rights Forum Lucerne: Infant (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Design&Art)
Commercial category
Annabelle: Women's suffrage (Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett)
Hiltl: Noses (Ruf, Lanz); Jobwinner (Wirz Werbung)
Leica Camera (Young & Rubicam Switzerland)
PET (Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett)
SBB: Discover the CH (Jung von Matt/Limmat)
SBB: Timetable change (Jung von Matt/Limmat)
Zurich Drama School: Diplomas (Publicis)
Stiftung Elternsein (Jung von Matt/Limmat)
Tagesanzeiger (Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett)
WOZ (Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett)

 Script, the Swiss copywriters' association, is preparing the new edition of its fee recommendations and is launching a survey for this purpose. As fee recommendations are a legally sensitive matter and could lead to problems, the association is working closely with the secretariat of the Competition Commission, according to a press release. Script and the entire industry are dependent on practical figures for the fee recommendations. This is not about desired fees, but real fees. The actual situation should therefore form the basis for the survey. As the results must be representative, the association is surveying all other copywriters in Switzerland in addition to its 150 or so members. The aim is to obtain up-to-date and well-founded figures.
Freelance copywriters, adaptors and anyone working in editing/proofreading are invited to take part in the survey. Once the results have been evaluated, they will be published in the brochure "Fee recommendations 2008/2009", which is expected to be available from early summer for a nominal fee.

 The Swiss Advertising Association has made its choice: BSW Association Secretary Monika Stocker has been named Communicator of the Month for March. With this decision and the recognition of Stocker's work, it should be explicitly pointed out that communicative work is not only carried out in front of, but also behind the scenes of the advertising industry. Monika Stocker has been working for the Swiss Advertising Association for 25 years (see also
Anyone who has endured a quarter of a century with the not always easy-to-care-for advertisers and has had to cope with over a dozen presidents, countless board members and three managing directors must have an astonishing ability to plug in and a talent for communication, said Piero Schäfer, spokesman for the Swiss Advertising Association, in a statement on Monday. In contrast to many others, she had allowed her skills to work internally and not externally, he added, paying tribute to Stocker.