Health Promotion Switzerland is currently drawing attention to its cause throughout the country: obesity is harmful to health. The fact that one in five children in Switzerland is already overweight is now being communicated in a quiet but powerful TV commercial by Jung von Matt/Limmat.  
Since January 8, posters and advertisements have been used throughout Switzerland to draw attention to the increasing problem of obesity. Now comes the commercial: We see a father struggling with his child's excess weight on a seesaw. The child is obviously heavier than he is, so that no swinging is possible at all. The father hangs helplessly, his legs dangling in the air. As in the print campaign, the overweight child is deliberately not shown in the film in order to stimulate the viewer's imagination and reinforce the effect. "It takes little to change a lot. Act early!" is the call at the end. The commercial can now be seen throughout Switzerland. Tips for a healthy body weight can be found on the Health Promotion Switzerland website.

As every year, the members of the Art Directors Club Switzerland (ADC) have judged the advertising of the past year and awarded prizes to the best of it. And much of it is top-notch, with seven gold awards this year. The big winners are the work for Fleurop by the Walker advertising agency with no fewer than five gold awards. Publicis is Agency of the Year.  
The ADC writes about the Fleurop spot: "This is not just advertising, but emotion that, cleverly conceived, touches the heart". Fleurop's "Wedding Day" is also counted by the club as one of the big favorites at the major international festivals. Walker won more gold with the Mother's Day campaign "Time to forgive her" and received two more gold cubes each in the "Film" and "Ads" categories. But that's not all: Walker also won gold in the "Illustration" category. Another gold for Walker was the Amnesty poster campaign "Not here, but now" in the "Outdoor advertising" category.
 
2006 is a top Swiss year, especially in film. The third film gold went to Wirz for the "Fotograf" spot, which has already won several international awards. Gold in the overall campaign category went to the courageous Mount Everest wannabe climber Mary Woodbridge for the client Mammut from the Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett agency. The clever linking of media channels was particularly praised in this case.
 
9x silver for work at an international level Even though seven gold cubes were awarded this year, this should not detract from the performance of the work awarded silver. On the contrary: the vintage was so strong that the silver can also be classified as a high distinction at an international level.
 
Category Advertisements: "Row of teeth for Suva by Ruf Lanz
"French fries" for Hakle by Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett
"Wooden blocks" for Pastorini from Publicis advertising agency
 
Outdoor advertising category: "Wooden blocks" for Pastorini by Publicis advertising agency
"MS interruption of the nerve pathways" by Advico Young & Rubicam
 
Film category: "10 Köpfe" for the Schauspielhaus Zurich by Publicis Werbeagentur  
Direct advertising/POS category: "Star applications" for Energy Zurich by Ruf Lanz "Duck washing program" for M-Electronics by Euro RSCG Switzerland
 
Design category: "Fleurop Annual Report" by Walker Werbeagentur
 
Press Prize and Agency of the Year A jury of five editors-in-chief from well-known newspapers met again under the patronage of Publicitas. It awards the Press Prize for an outstanding print campaign from the point of view of newspaper editors. This year, Ruf Lanz won with its Hyunday advertisement.
Like other advertising festivals, the ADC honored the Agency of the Year for the first time this year - sponsored and additionally rewarded with participation in the next Cannes Lions Week by Cinecom. Agency of the Year is awarded to the agency that wins the most ADC awards according to a weighted ranking, with 1 point being awarded for each shortlist position, 2 for bronze, 3 for silver and 4 for gold. This year, the advertising agency Publicis won the race with 57 points.

Dubious companies from France and Belgium offered advertising contracts to several Swiss companies. They paid the fraudsters several million francs for advertisements that were never published. The fraudsters informed the companies by fax that an advertising contract existed. They then aggressively demanded that the contract be fulfilled, otherwise they would be threatened with debt collection. Around 20 companies in Lower Valais fell for the scammers and transferred the requested amounts, as the Valais cantonal police confirmed to SDA on Friday. The victims are mainly small and medium-sized businesses such as restaurant operators or garage owners, as Inspector Pierre-Antoine Lengen told SDA on request. The police are currently estimating the amount of the crime at around 5 million francs in Lower Valais alone. However, the whole of French-speaking Switzerland is affected, Lengen continued.

A study by the media research company Publicom shows how closely media and PR are interwoven. In a good half of the daily reporting on media conferences held by cantonal authorities, there is no evidence of any content from the media. The authors of the study expect a further shift in the balance of power in favor of PR.  
For two months, a research team observed 42 media conferences of the authorities in the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen and then carried out content analyses of the editorial reporting of regional radio and TV programs as well as regional journals of Radio DRS and leading regional online portals. The result: the content produced by the daily news media is low. The majority of media releases from the authorities reach the public unchanged. Follow-up research is rare; selection and reduction are the main functions of the media system. There is only one point where the media deviate from the authorities' presentation: They portray political events as more conflictual than they are. With this accentuation, they achieve an emotionalization of political events - probably to generate circulation.
 
PR still on the rise The advance of electronic media has led to tougher competition. The pressure to be up to date stands in the way of commentary, which is still best cultivated in newspapers. Journalism professor Ulrich Saxer describes the relationship between PR and the media as a "precarious relationship between Siamese twins". According to the authors of the study, the distribution of economic weights between PR and the media and the ongoing professionalization will continue to shift the balance of power in favour of PR. In particular, the pressure to be up-to-date is weakening its position in relation to organized interests. The result is more information, but less depth, reflection and background.
The Publicom study "Political public relations in regional media" was funded by the Federal Office of Communications.

From March 1, Bluewin TV will gradually expand its basic offering with eleven new television channels. Bluewin TV already offers a wide selection of foreign channels in its basic offering, which have already been removed from the analogue line-up in some cable television networks.  
While the analog channel selection is decreasing with individual cable network providers, Bluewin TV offers a broad basic range. These include RAI Uno, France 2 and WDR. Bluewin is now expanding. As the company announced on Friday, the following channels will be switched on gradually from April: The Entertainment Channel and DMAX will be added in German, France24 and Luxe TV in France, Varese Sat in Italian, ITV 3 in the UK, the Spanish channels TV Valencia Internacional, Andalucia TV, TeleMadrid Sat and CNN Canal 24 Horas as well as the Brazilian entertainment channel Record Internacional Europa.
 
Bluewin TV was launched last November and offers television via the telephone connection. The program now includes over 100 television channels, more than 70 radio channels and up to 30 Teleclub channels. Viewers can flexibly design their own personal program: The programs can be searched for, recorded, programmed or paused very easily. A telephone connection and broadband Internet access from Swisscom are required, but no cable connection.

The sale at Charles Vögele is very popular. In a commercial, Publicis dramatizes the run on the discounted items with the misappropriated shot of a marathon start.  
A sports commentator eagerly describes the starting line-up of the runners. Suddenly the starting gun goes off. Hyperventilating, he comments on the action and tells us the runners' destination: neither gold nor silver, but the nearest Charles Vögele store.

Ruf Lanz has been responsible for market and corporate communications for Zurich's public transport company since 2002. To date, over 40 advertisements and posters have rolled out of the creative agency. Now the Zurich creatives have come up with new, striking subjects for VBZ.  
With their VBZ subjects, Ruf Lanz have won the sympathy of the people of Zurich - as well as numerous national and international awards. In its latest campaign, Ruf Lanz also positions the streetcars and buses in Zurich's often gridlocked city traffic as a smart alternative to private transport. The new motifs are now being used on advertisements, posters and driver's back panels.

In Spain, the initiative against skinny models is being tightened up. After the catwalks, it is now the turn of the fashion chains: the relevant authorities are stipulating uniform sizes and banning excessively skinny mannequins.  
A new agreement with the country's largest ready-to-wear brands stipulates uniform sizes, bans skinny mannequins and abolishes the special "large sizes" departments in department stores. Zara and Mango, Spain's textile giants with millions of female customers worldwide, have bowed to the new regulations. "Fashion should enable women to feel comfortable just as they are," says Angeles Heras, director of the Spanish consumer authority. From 2008, clothing brands will have to base their designs on the masses of real customers. In order to determine the average spans, 8500 women and girls between the ages of 12 and 70 will be measured in a study by the Ministry of Health. Although the fashion world is reacting extremely critically, Madrid wants to continue its offensive. A "social pact against anorexia and bulimia" and a ban on miracle weight loss products are planned.

For once, Huntington's clash of civilizations directly affects the advertising industry: In China, advertising with images of pigs is not allowed on television during the Buddhist New Year, when the Year of the Pig begins. This directive was issued out of consideration for the Muslim minority.  
The responsible censorship authority has forwarded the directive to the country's advertising agencies, a manager of the Shanghai-based agency Mindshare told SDA on Friday.
The agency representative continued: "The ban also applies to slogans such as "Golden Pig brings good luck" or "Happy Year of the Pig". On February 18, the Year of the Dog ends and the Year of the Pig begins. The ban on advertising was justified on the grounds that conflicts between nationalities should be avoided. Officially, 21 million of the 1.3 billion Chinese are considered Muslims, for whom the pig is considered an unclean animal.

Valentine's Day is coming up soon: on February 14, the focus will once again be on love. If you want to express it with depth or if you are allergic to roses, the best way to say it to your partner is with a letter. But because literary fervor is not everyone's cup of tea, the Swiss Association of Copywriters is once again running the ScriptValentin campaign: Text professionals write personalized love letters to order.  
Whether profound or direct, erotic or funny, affectionate or wacky - 27 motivated text professionals from all over Switzerland give their all to hit the hearts of the addressees with their word arrows. Each letter is written individually, with the copywriters volunteering their time and expertise. The love letters are available in German, French, Italian and English and cost CHF 70 per letter. Script has found illustrious partners for the love letter campaign: Annabelle, Radio Zürisee, the Zurich advertising agency FW Bienenfeld, the advertising agency Strichpunkt from Winterthur, as well as Screenimage and Root Längenbold. After Valentine's Day 2007, the best, most beautiful, most touching love letter will be chosen in an online competition.
 
Script is the Swiss professional organization for copywriting, editing and adaptation in the context of advertising, public relations and corporate journalism.

The T'Sign advertising agency strengthened its team at the beginning of the year with the addition of journalist Andy Strässle. He will be responsible for corporate publishing. Strässle will be responsible for copywriting and conception at the agency, which is based in Allschwil near Basel. The aim of the advertising agency is to deepen the content area

SRG is responding to the Federal Council's decision to increase radio and TV fees by 2.5 percent instead of the 6.5 percent demanded by SRG with cost-cutting measures. From 2008, it will no longer broadcast Formula 1 races and is postponing the planned children's channel. As part of the cost-cutting measures announced on Thursday, SRG will remove Formula 1 broadcasts from its program from next year. The children's channel project announced in November will be put on hold for the time being and its implementation will be reassessed at a later date. SRG does not intend to offer television in high-definition quality (HTDV) nationwide until 2012 instead of 2010. In view of EURO 08, a channel is to be set up at the end of the year to broadcast programs in HD format in the national languages.
 
SRG also intends to continue its policy of increasing productivity and efficiency. For example, it intends to concentrate information technology (IT) in regional language competence centers. SRG intends to save CHF 55 million per year with these measures. As no linear cost reductions are planned, possible personnel consequences could be limited to projects and individual cases. The savings measures of CHF 45 million per year agreed in 2005 will be continued.