At this year's Olma, the regional butchers' association will be awarding a prize for the best commercial for Olma bratwurst. A total of 26 commercials were submitted by the closing date, which will be judged by a jury headed by President Kurt Felix over the next few weeks. The winner of the "Olma-Brodworscht-Öski" (Oscar), endowed with CHF 4000, will be announced at the Olma on October 17, 2007, as reported by the SDA on Tuesday. The background to the apparently unique competition is the legal protection of the best-known St. Gallen sausage specialties; the butchers have registered these with the Federal Office for Agriculture as a protected geographical indication (PGI). The aim of the competition is to support the protection of St. Gallen and Olma sausages. The 26 commercials can already be viewed on the Olmabratwurst.ch website.
What is remarkable about this farce in Eastern Switzerland is that the name protection of the St. Gallen sausages is being celebrated by stealing the well-known and certainly protected name Oscar. It is doubtful that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the somewhat less rustic Oscar every year, has contacted us about the name theft. But who knows, maybe there will be St. Gallen sausages made in China at the Academy Awards next February.

 
In a competitive presentation, Brüngger Dialog has won the communications account of the Geneva-based investment company Growth Value Opportunities, which is listed on the Swiss stock exchange. The newly founded dialog agency was commissioned to develop the CI/CD. Building on this, the agency developed the website and all advertising materials such as newsletters, presentation templates and letterheads. Growth Value Opportunities is the successor company to ENR Russia Invest and operates as a global investment firm, with overall responsibility for Brüngger:
Daniel Brüngger; Design: Ralph Eisler (Design 360), Manuela Eigenmann; Text: Daniel Brüngger; Web design: Manuela Eigenmann; Consulting: Liv Bianchet, Noëmi Fretz; Project management & text Growth Value Opportunities SA: Désirée von Michaelis.

 Violeta Hollinek-Sampson, who has served as marketing director for the supplier search engine «Wer liefert was?» in Austria since May 2004, is now also taking over as marketing director of the Swiss branch. In her new position, Hollinek-Sampson is responsible for all marketing activities, collaboration with all agencies, and maintaining media relations for both Switzerland and Austria. Previously, she served as Deputy Branch Manager at Messe-Service-International Vertriebs and as a project manager at Service GmbH, part of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. While working, the Linz native completed a degree in Marketing & Sales at a university of applied sciences in Vienna.

 "Stromberg" actor Christoph Maria Herbst is coming to Zurich on October 17 to host the screenings of the ProSieben, Sat.1 and Kabel eins channels at Screen-up & Congress 2007. The winner of the German Comedy Award, also known from earlier programs of "Ladykracher" as Anke Engelke's partner, has already provided entertainment at this year's Big Picture TV trade fair in Germany. He will be joined by other TV personalities from Germany and abroad at Screen-up & Congress. The program and online registration for the Swiss TV trade congress are now available at Screen-up.ch.

 Daniel Pauletto and his company Pauletto will take over advertising management for the two magazines Bulletin and Bulletin Spezial with immediate effect. Yvonne Pfister was previously responsible for marketing. Pauletto already markets the magazines Vinum and Marmite. Prior to that, he was advertising manager at Sonntagszeitung for many years and national sales manager at Cinecom. He will be assisted by Philipp Vonarburg, former area sales manager of the NZZ, the NZZ-Folio and advertising manager of the cultural magazine Du.

 
The Erlenbach-based agency Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners has created the advertisements for the New Grand Vitara, New SX4 and New Swift models for Suzuki Automobile Switzerland. According to a press release issued by the agency on Tuesday, the campaign highlights the advantages of the three models in a sympathetic, surprising and tongue-in-cheek way. The advertising campaign is running immediately throughout Switzerland in magazines, daily newspapers and the trade press:
Hanspeter Bachmann (Managing Director), Reto Kreis (Head of Sales), Jürg Naef (Head of Marketing and PR) Responsible at Metzgerlehner:
Felix Dammann (Creative Direction), Marco Lehner (Strategy), Gian Andrea Maurizio (Art Direction), Patrick Meyer (Text), Daniela Steffen and Thomas Hinderling (Consulting).

 The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has engaged in inadmissible drug advertising in its Internet article "Migraine & Sport". The Federal Supreme Court has upheld the ban by Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products. In 2005, GlaxoSmithKline published two articles on its website Migraene.ch with the titles "Migraine on vacation" and "Migraine & sport". Both refer to the treatment option with triptans. The pharmaceutical company markets two medicines for migraine in Switzerland that contain triptans as active ingredients.
In 2006, Swissmedic prohibited further publication of the texts. GlaxoSmithKline took the matter to the Federal Court, which has now dismissed the appeal.
According to the Lausanne judges, the article in question exceeded the limit of permissible information. The text contained only one sentence on triptans and also referred to other treatment options. However, triptans were brought to the fore by recommending them as a last resort for migraine attacks if normal painkillers were not sufficient.
Finally, the text contained the company's logo, which created a link to its product range for the average reader. The view that the advertising character predominated was overall strict, but not contrary to federal law.
A year ago, the Federal Court had already confirmed that the pharmaceutical company Pfizer had engaged in inadmissible advertising for drugs with its brochure "Headache or Migraine? - A Guide" (see
).

 The Blick Online media portal has undergone a thorough refresh. The portal now also offers stories in animated form: In-house video journalists deliver daily stories from Switzerland. The agency Orange8 Interactive was commissioned with the redesign. The newly developed multimedia center on Blick.ch now shows numerous photo galleries and news videos. Every day shortly before 12 noon, presenter Elena Beltrame presents two-minute news items in the web TV magazine "BlickPunkt".
The navigation is now at the top of the page, similar to the online presence of the German Bild newspaper. This means that the entire width of the screen is free for the presentation of content. Similar to Bild.de are the new tabs, so-called inline tabs, which display a variety of related topics without having to open new pages.
Web 2.0 functionalities such as comments and content rating options are now available everywhere on the site and are supported by community elements such as blogs and chats.
Pictures, tips and texts submitted by reader reporters will now be published in the new "Reader's View" after being revised by the editorial team. There, surfers can also vote for the best reader photo.
With the new design, the portal is to move away from the style of a print medium towards a digital look and feel. However, the tabloid character of the website is to be retained.
There is also news for advertising customers: From now on, standard advertising formats based on the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) can be booked for online campaigns. These will be supplemented by special forms of advertising. In addition, individual solutions, which are tailored to each individual customer, are also coming to the fore.
The agency Orange8 Interactive was commissioned with the redesign. Together with a project team from Ringier, it was tasked with improving the design and site structure.
The biggest challenge of the project was to accommodate the diverse content on the portal in a clear and user-friendly way, while achieving an optimum balance between editorial and commercial aspects, according to a statement from the agency.

 The Zurich PR agency Primus Communications is now responsible for media relations for the Vacances, Sports & Loisirs vacation fair. The focus is on regular press relations with the public media in French-speaking Switzerland. The fair will take place from January 25 to 27, 2008 in Hall 7 of Geneva Palexpo. Together with the Holiday Fair in Berne, Fespo in Zurich and the Basel Holiday Fair, it is one of the four most important vacation, leisure and health fairs in Switzerland. With the exception of the Berne Holiday Fair, all four events are organized by Wigra Expo.

 To mark their big anniversary, Zurich's public transport operators are being extremely generous. For four weeks, they are making 20 of their streetcar advertising spaces available free of charge. Whether you're an artist, a toddler or a police detective, anyone can take part in the competition for the spaces to be designed and submit their ideas by October 20, when they will be judged on originality by a five-member jury. From mid-November, ten modern Cobra streetcars with the specially designed streetcar roof panels will be driving through the city.

 Ralph Wirth, Managing Director of the St. Gallen radio station Toxic.fm, is leaving his post. He will be moving to the Zurich marketing agency Dr. Marc Rutschmann in mid-January 2008. There he will take up a position as consultant/project manager, according to a press release from the radio station. His successor at Toxic.fm has not yet been appointed.

What CBS can do in the U.S., SF can apparently do too: In the land of unlimited opportunity, a program called "Kid Nation" is causing a stir because it shows 40 children living in the desert without parents (see ). Now the parentless luck also overtakes the Swiss offspring: Twelve children from the whole German-speaking part of Switzerland at the age of ten to twelve years dare the big adventure, writes SF in a message. The great adventure - crossing raging streams, perhaps? Eating earthworms? Bivouacking at 3000 meters above sea level? No, the big adventure is called "living for a week without a cell phone and without a Gameboy," Swiss television instructs us.
But apparently there's a little more to the eight-part docu-soap "Das Adventure Camp," which will run on Saturdays and Sundays starting October 13, 2007. Divided into two teams, with the sounding names "Bad Beavers" and "Nasty Frogs," the twelve children compete against each other. Every day they have to solve a task. For example, the Bad Beavers and the Mean Frogs have to set up their tent shelters, climb up a rock face or abseil down a rope bridge over a river. The team that solves this task more skillfully and faster is rewarded with a point. A great prize awaits the winning team. Let us guess - a cell phone or a Gameboy?