The Big Brother Award, the annual prize for the greatest violations of the fundamental rights and privacy of Swiss citizens, was presented for the eighth time on Friday in St. Gallen. Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher was the winner in the State category for his efforts to tighten up the Federal Protection of Information Act (BWIS). The laudatory speech pointed out that the bill provided for massively expanded preventive measures, such as the tapping of telephone conversations, the secret searching of computers, the hidden intrusion into and bugging of homes - all without concrete suspicion of a criminal offense and without independent judicial review of the measures. In other words: a police state, as the bill contradicts the Federal Constitution on several points. Helsana won in the Business category for its dubious procurement of patient data, as stated in the explanatory statement, while SBB and the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) won in the Workplace category for their widespread drug testing of railroad staff. The Audience Award for commendable resistance to surveillance and control went to blogger Thomas Brühwiler, alias BloggingTom. In his blog in August, he drew attention to an online pillory for late payers at Studentbooks.ch and other online stores.

 
The Basel-based consultancy for internal and external communications int/ext Communications has strengthened its team with Mark Ehrsam as of the beginning of October 2007. According to a press release issued on Monday, he will increase the company's expertise in the areas of strategic consulting and copywriting. Ehrsam studied biology at the University of Basel and went on to manage challenging projects in various areas of communications at the nature conservation organization Pro Natura. Most recently, he was editor-in-chief of the Pro Natura magazine and deputy media officer. While working, he trained as a PR consultant at the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI) in Zurich.

Former Cash boss Dirk Schütz will become Editor-in-Chief of the business magazine Bilanz from January 1, 2008. He succeeds René Lüchinger, who left the magazine in September 2007 (see ). "I was looking for someone who combines both professional expertise in the field of business journalism and management experience. Only a few people have this - and in Dirk Schütz we have now found the right man," Axel Springer Switzerland CEO Ralph Büchi told Werbewoche. "I was able to take my time with the new appointment because Stefan Barmettler and Pierre-André Schmitt have managed Bilanz very well on an interim basis. "How the business magazine should be developed further will be discussed with the three-person committee of Schütz, Barmettler and Schmitt from the new year. "Bilanz has been successful for 30 years. We will discuss how we can improve it further once the new editor-in-chief is on board," said Büchi. The editorial team should set the course.
Schütz graduated from the Henri Nannen School of Journalism after studying economics. He is already familiar with Bilanz: in the 1990s and until 2002, he was deputy editor-in-chief of Bilanz and the German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche. From 2002 to July 2007, he was Editor-in-Chief of Ringier's weekly newspaper Cash.
In his new role, Schütz will also become a member of the extended management of the publisher Axel Springer Switzerland. Stefan Barmettler, previously a member of the editorial board of Bilanz, has been appointed deputy editor-in-chief. Pierre-André Schmitt, who has been managing the business magazine together with Barmettler on an interim basis following the departure of René Lüchinger, will also remain Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

 The Effie competition has set a new record in Switzerland: 28 agencies and their clients submitted a total of 107 cases for the next edition of the competition. The services category received the most entries with 22, followed by food with 20 and consumer goods and financial services with 14 campaigns each. In the newly created Export category, three campaigns are competing for an Effie Award. The 28 jury members will examine and assess the cases by the beginning of January 2008. The challenge/strategy will be rated at 40 percent and the proof of effectiveness at 60 percent. Each case will be examined in detail by at least 10 jury members, according to BSW. The finalists will be announced in mid-January 2008, from which the Effie winners will be selected at the jury meeting on March 5, 2008, including the creation. The award ceremony will take place on April 8, 2008 in the studios of Swiss Television.

 
Due to UBS's losses running into billions in the wake of the US mortgage crisis, the major Swiss bank was dragged through all the Sunday newspapers last weekend. In the Sonntagszeitung, a graph showing the collapse in the value of UBS shares ("In free fall") since the beginning of June could be marveled at, in the NZZ am Sonntag the expected considerable tax losses due to the losses of UBS and CS were even the main topic of the issue (cover story page 1) and the Sonntagsblick criticized the information policy of Ospel and Rohner ("Bosses go underground"). The Sonntag newspaper, in which the topic was also prominently covered, also featured what could be described as an updated image advertisement for UBS. According to Sonntag, a UBS employee with a slight penchant for black humor acted as creative director. The result, see the picture opposite, is short and to the point. It brings to mind claims from UBS mortgage advertising such as: "Relaxed into the future. With a mortgage from UBS." Or maybe not.

 TBWA\Health has been shortlisted for a health communication award at the New York Global Awards with its public health campaign "Hand on heart" for the Swiss Pharmacists' Association PharmaSuisse. The cross-media campaign sensitized the population to the three heart attack risk factors of smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise and invited them to take a personal risk test at the pharmacy.

 The "smallest advertising agency in the world" can also keep up with the biggest. In the Gunn Report, which became public on Friday, Zurich-based Walker Werbung is listed three times among the best in the creative world. With his posters for Amnesty International, Pius Walker achieved 9th place among the "most awarded print ads and campaigns in the world 2007". In the "most creative agencies" competition, Walker is ranked 39th in the global ranking, which is sensational for the small country of Switzerland. In the "client" category, Amnesty International is in 21st place in a ranking headed by Nike, VW, Sony and Coca-Cola. Of the 11 rating points achieved by Amnesty International, 6 are attributable to Walker's work.
This year, no other agencies from Switzerland were directly included in the Gunn Report's Gallery of Honor. However, Wirz Werbung, which is part of the BBDO network, can be pleased that BBDO International has been voted Network of the Year.
The Gunn Report advertises itself as "the only independent report on creativity in the world of advertising". The list compiled by the Gunn Report combines the results of all the major creative awards around the world. In 2006, there were 36 competitions for TV and 22 for print. In 2007, online and interactive work was added for the first time.
Andreas Panzeri

 A hard blow for the FCZ fans among Heute readers: The free evening newspaper is becoming a premium partner of Grasshopper Club Zürich. The paper intends to offer its football-loving young readers exclusive promotions relating to the football club over the coming weeks and months. These include prize draws, fan packages, Meets&Greets with GC stars and chats in the online community. The newspaper will also be present on site: Already at the GC home game on Saturday, the Heute lettering will be visible on the so-called CamCarpets on the pitch and additionally on all perimeter boards in the stadium.

 Following the publication of the October figures from Net-Metrix-Audit on Thursday, the research company announced the results of the second round of Net-Metrix-Profile on Friday. This study maps the user base of websites in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and provides information on reach (see
Real online reach at last
). The target group analysis provides information, for example, on which websites are used by online shoppers, by women with an affinity for fashion or by the target group of silver surfers aged 60 and over, which has been growing for several years.
In addition to target group analyses, the study enables the planning of online advertising campaigns, according to Net-Metrix. The unique user reach published in Net-Metrix profiles provides online advertising media - such as print, radio and TV - with reliable reach data suitable for planning. In contrast to the audit survey, the profile study can therefore show how many individual users visit a website.
The Net-Metrix-Audit web statistics only collect website usage data. However, it is the basis for Net-Metrix profiles: Your data is supplemented with a parallel onsite survey. A total of around 18,500 onsite interviews were conducted.
The top ten per month look like this:

 
Neue Lgk has created three television commercials and an advertisement in Bern and Zurich for the nationwide launch of Emmi's new ready-made product Gerber Steak Fromage. The Gerber brand, which belongs to Emmi and is best known as the inventor of the ready-made fondue, is trying to position itself in the growing market for baked cheese with this new product. The commercials were produced in collaboration with Solid & Hallerfilm and director Rainer Binz. In analogy to the new product - a new preparation method for the traditional Swiss cheeses Gruyère and Raclette - the agency is serving tradition in a different way, according to a press release. In each commercial, folkloristic groups sing a well-known Swiss folk song - but not quite as we know it. To the tunes of "Det ännet am Bärgli", "Mir Senne" and "Là-haut sur la Montagne", they sing lyrics about a new product that is waiting to be discovered - Gerber Steak Fromage. The commercials will be broadcast in German and French-speaking Switzerland from the end of October. They will be accompanied by an advertisement in the Coop newspaper.

Responsible at Emmi Fondue:
Jean-Luc Rouiller (Marketing and Sales) and Beatrice Hauswirth (Brand and Product Management), responsible at Neue Lgk:
André Benker (CD), Reto Schild (AD), Andreas Szentkuti (text), Nicole Trasatti and Gabriela Kammermann (consulting). Film production: Solid & Hallerfilm. Rainer Binz (director), Stéphane Kuthy (camera) and Rudi Haller (production).

 
With a slight delay of almost three weeks, Swiss Teletext announces that the election Sunday of October 21 brought Teletext and Teletext.ch a new user record. The somewhat decelerated information policy could be due to the paralyzing scope of the user record, because according to Telecontrol, Teletext was used by almost 1.9 million people throughout Switzerland on this election Sunday alone, which corresponds to almost a third of the population. In addition, the online version of Teletext.ch registered over 100,000 visits in one day for the first time since the website was launched. With 1.2 million page views on election Sunday, the website also reached its highest level this year.

 
Together with the canton of Basel, Health Promotion Switzerland is launching a campaign for healthy kindergarten and school snacks to combat the rampant obesity among children. Today, one in five children in Switzerland is overweight, and in Basel it is one in four. At the heart of the Jung von Matt/Limmat campaign is the blue snack box, which is well known in Basel. Parents are encouraged to fill it together with their children in a sensible way and with healthy contents. Together with Health Promotion Switzerland, Jung von Matt/Limmat has created a special unit for this purpose: the Znüni-Transformer. They transform themselves from the contents of the blue suitcase into energizing fruit and vegetable agents. The campaign is running on posters in the greater Basel area. There are no plans yet to roll it out in other cantons, but Health Promotion Switzerland would like to see it:
Peter Burri Follath (overall responsibility, Head of Communications), Victoria Graf (Campaign Coordinator), Daniela Maag (Deputy Program Manager) and Thomas Steffen (Department of Health of the Canton of Basel-Stadt) Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat:
Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction), Lukas Frei (Art Direction), Thomas Ammann (Text), Yves Gerteis (Graphics), Ilonka Galliard, Erasmo Palomba (Art Buying), Fabian Röthlisberger, Michèle Gutmann, Milène Huber (Consulting), Hans-Jörg Walter (Photography and Model) and Lukas Gloor, Pictura (Image Editing).