A threesome is nothing new. What is more interesting is that it not only stimulates the imagination, but has recently also brought the generations closer together. So much for lonely senior citizens, so much for the young not wanting to know anything about the old. Tempi passati. In the age of equality, a 70-year-old is of course entitled to two 35-year-olds. Oh sorry, if I misjudged my age. Looking at it another way, you could also come to the conclusion that the girls in the two subjects only want one thing and that senior citizens who take Viagra can only do one thing. While he wants to show toughness without a care in the world, she is probably more interested in escaping the hardship of a work-intensive everyday life. After all, heart attacks are not uncommon among senior citizens. Hard, but true and thanks to Viagra. As we all know, you shouldn't paint the devil on the wall. So one last attempt at interpretation: the two advertisements are examples of how proud grandfathers are of their grandchildren - the female ones, of course. Perhaps in the USA. (ck)

Column The media hunt for Anita Fetz & Co. is offensive, not their donation behavior. Because anyone who reveals their sponsors in this business will soon have none left.Anita Fetz has not had a good summer. Roberto Zanetti, the trade unionist who had risen to become the leader of the government in Solothurn, had it only slightly easier in her slipstream. After all, the communication disaster of the two down-to-earth social democratic politicians could hardly have been more brutal. All they did was accept election donations from people who were sympathetic to them - in some cases across party lines. What, pray tell, is reprehensible about that?
The sponsors are being brought close to a financial engineer who probably leaves many questions unanswered, but who no one has yet been able to prove is dishonest. This Dieter Behring is obviously the target of an orchestrated campaign. It is as true that such campaigns never have anything to do with competitive jealousy in the financial centers and that they are always motivated by louder motives than the fact that the earth is flat. Did Behring demand or even receive anything from Fetz/Zanetti for his donation - a better tip by his standards? Did
the Pro Facile Foundation, whose charitable services have not been called into question up to now, has taken undue advantage? Apparently not. What remains are election campaign donations on an unusual scale - at least for the canton of Solothurn. Although this should not be viewed so narrowly either. For example, I have just read in the magazine "Jagd & Natur" that the Solothurn hunters had to spend a whopping CHF 22,000,000 at the beginning of 2004 to defend two cantonal popular initiatives against hunting.
In Zurich, anyone who is not blessed with the grace of naivety knows which entrepreneurs have been filling politicians' campaign accounts for years. Especially those who are running for executive offices and who can therefore be assumed to have their own hand on the
have a cash register. It's not just the middle-class exponents who are considered; no, the landscape to the left of the central reservation also needs to be looked after.
It would never occur to one of the noble donors to ask for something in return; they can rely on the anticipatory obedience of their representatives. At the crucial moment, they already know what is right. How this works in detail can be read in the memoirs of the late Werner Spross. For the sake of curiosity, it should be noted that acting Zurich government councillors even dived for gold on his yacht, which the tycoon deliberately threw into the water.
There is a very simple way to counter the evil appearance of venality and to shed light on the gray areas between politics and business: openness and publicity. What is clearly declared deserves trust, regardless of whether it is a cutlet or a donation. What is public, or at least publicly accessible, can be monitored and is therefore accountable. Because what I know is no longer so hot. One could conclude from this that politicians who disclose their sponsors demonstrate sovereignty and independence. The only problem is that under these circumstances, many donors no longer give anything. The entrepreneurs mentioned above - even though everyone who comes from them knows them - would be the first to discreetly withdraw. Spross was the only one who was open about his practices. Most of the others would rather bite their tongues off than admit that they too are sowing to cultivate the landscape.
Openness disarms attackers. However, it only works if it is voluntary and proactive and not demanded by others. Anyone who puts themselves on the defensive, who lets envious people and snipers set the agenda, has already lost. Like Anita Fetz and Roberto Zanetti.
> Karl Lüönd is Head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Media Association
Press, publicist and hunter.

Sponsoring Many bigwigs paid their respects to the Indian lions Mena and Bahrirat at the traditional Zoofäscht in Zurich. The charity party raised over 800,000 francs for the new lion enclosure, with Globus sponsoring the decorations and give-aways. And served the lions a very special treat in the program magazine: A blood-red beef tartare with obligatory Peterli from the creative kitchen of Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett.

Shopping centers Nowadays, you can always look a gift horse in the mouth. That's why it's advisable to give the gift of an entire shopping center - not literally, of course, but in the form of a gift voucher. Wyler Werbung has visualized this request on two posters, "each of which depicts a rather 'clumsy' gift", as CD Ruedi Wyler puts it. The gag is resolved with the Shoppi&Tivoli headline.

Culture The government council of the canton of Baselland has awarded one of its three cultural prizes, each worth 25,000 francs, to John Schmid, co-founder of the former WHS hotshop, for his art installation "Sculpture at Schoenthal" on the site of the former monastery. To date, 15 national and international artists have created sculptures there, which, according to the laudation, blend subtly into the Jura landscape. This makes the site one of the few art locations of supra-regional importance in the Basel region. The cantonal councillor also praised Schmid's commitment to modern jazz.

Publishing Bern Tourism now relies on the "Hello Visitors" concept from The Guide Company to inform its guests. From November, the City Guide Bern brochure will be published twice a year, and the previous What's on guide will be replaced by the fortnightly Going Out Bern. Benteli Hallwag is responsible for printing and local advertising acquisition. National customers are served directly by The Guide Company, in which PubliGroupe recently acquired a 30% stake.

Guest commentary For the Swiss advertising industry, the upcoming interim certification by Wemf in October has a clear signal effect, warns Urs Schneider. Due to the introduction of a new counting procedure, the next mandatory certification will not take place until October 2005. For some publishers, a year and a half is too long, which is why Wemf, which is financed by them, is offering an interim certification this October. The results would be published for the first time at practically the same time as the readership figures. An extremely sensible move, especially in view of the setting of the new tariffs. The new certification regulations already seem to be having an effect. Various publishers are suddenly paying closer attention to the development of their circulation figures, which is a positive development from the client's point of view. After the recent cases of false declarations, only rapid and complete transparency can restore the necessary trust. For this reason alone, it would be advisable for all major publications that are important for the advertising industry to carry out an interim certification.
Big players have registered their participation. However, if only around 60 titles take part in the interim review, the good Wemf initiative will not be very meaningful. A patchy certification would send the wrong signal to the advertising industry. A collective voluntary clean-up in two months would restore confidence in the print runs. This is especially true for small and medium-sized daily newspapers.
The argument that not much has changed in the past year is not valid. Recently, various titles have developed, in some cases surprisingly. The new Wemf regulations also have an impact on the survey methodology. This step will result in major deviations. This makes the advertising industry's demand for rapid transparency all the more understandable. A delay until October 2005 would be unacceptable. In Germany, the circulation of large publications is even checked on a quarterly basis. This may be a little too much of a good thing, but the logic is sound.
Another excuse is the cost factor. This depends on the print run and amounts to a maximum of CHF 3700 for print runs of over 300,000 copies. Wemf grants a third discount for interim certification. The maximum cost for this proof of confidence in your own product is therefore a mere 2467 francs, and only 1167 francs for publications with a print run of up to 50,000 copies.
The interim certification offers publishers a double opportunity to show the advertising industry that they have recognized the problem of circulation figures and are doing their part to solve it.
> Urs Schneider is the owner of the Zurich agency Media Schneider.

Laundry detergent Henkel Switzerland is relying on Wirz to strengthen its marketing communications for the Persil brand, with the launch of Persil Sensitive as the first project. The close cooperation between the direct marketers at Wirz Brugger Lüthi and the media specialists at Wirz Corporate promises an efficient use of resources, says Marketing Manager Irina Jerman, explaining the choice of agency.

Newspapers BaZ is breaking new ground with its relaunch communication. And it is taking the bz by the hand with the Saturday job supplement.
Under the title "Curtain up: This is what the new BaZ offers", BaZ readers were recently shown and listed in a prominent place what will change in terms of concept and appearance on September 4. "We want to use the remaining days to inform you openly about the new BaZ," wrote Editor-in-Chief Ivo Bachmann, adding that the double-page spread was a big bang, but not an isolated one. Rather, it is embedded in a communication with the readership that Bachmann has been conducting continuously since the beginning of the year and continues to do so. We can expect to see more of the same on the day of the relaunch, but BaZ is still keeping quiet about this.
However, it is no secret that the layout is still being fine-tuned. Just recently, the new daily culture magazine was renamed "bazkulturmagazin" to make it recognizable as a BaZ supplement.
In contrast, the Saturday Stellefant, BaZ's own job advertisement, will be different: its layout will be more neutral, more independent of BaZ, because from September 4 it will no longer be published only by BaZ, but now also by the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (bz) in Liestal. This will increase circulation by around 23 percent to a certified 125,718 copies. "This will give the Stellefant better coverage in the region, which is why we are also hoping for more revenue," says BaZ publisher Matthias Hagemann. The price per millimeter for a job advertisement in the new Stellefant will rise from CHF 3.04 to CHF 3.84, but up to now, advertising in both titles cost CHF 4.57 (bz standard circulation). Of course, both newspapers can still be booked in mono, but such advertisements will no longer appear in Stellefant.
bz publisher Mathis Lüdin is also pleased with the new cooperation. "This gives BaZ and us a better national presence in the job market," he says, describing the win-win situation for both papers. The Stellefant will be upgraded by the bz, "which is clearly the number 1 in the middle and upper part of the Basel region". Conversely, the bz would gain access to the national job market. "I expect substantial additional income for the bz, even if the job market does not pick up strongly," says Lüdin.
Cooperation remains selective
For the bz, this is now the second cooperation with Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM): two years ago, Lüdin also transferred the bz early delivery to BZM. However, Lüdin does not want to hear of a rapprochement between bz and BaZ. "These are only selective collaborations, nothing more and nothing less," he says, distancing himself from his major competitor.
Hagemann, who a good year ago signaled to the smaller newspaper publishers in northwestern Switzerland that BaZ was willing to enter into some form of cooperation, sees things differently. "The joint publication of Stellefant is an example of the kind of cooperation we are striving for," says Hagemann. And he adds: "We are open to further meaningful collaborations." So far, however, there have been no further projects with either bz or other publishers. "But that's also down to us. Because we didn't approach them because of the BaZ relaunch," says Hagemann.
Fruits of the BaZ relaunch: Stellefant with higher circulation, new culture magazine.
BaZ opens sales office in ZurichBaZ recently opened a sales office at Holbeinstrasse 22 in Zurich (Publicitas building), which will be staffed by Alessia Freitag (28) two days a week until the end of August, but will be fully staffed from September 1. The qualified media planner, who previously worked as an account manager at Publimedia Zurich, is now in charge of BaZ's key account area, which was previously managed from Basel. "We deliberately chose someone who comes from the Zurich market," says Daniel Sommer, Head of Publishing at BaZ. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Product placement When the Feldschlösschen brewery was founded in 1876, Jeremias Gotthelf had already been dead for 22 years, but that didn't stop the media agency Mediaxis from using the program "Leben wie in Gotthelfs Zeiten" for the new Feldschlösschen Urtrüb brand. Mediaxis Managing Director Peter Hofstetter personally donned historical costume for the guerrilla campaign and loaded a packhorse with a barrel of beer. He managed to do what many others could not: he made it as far as the Zuppiger television family on the Sahlenweidli farm. According to Mediaxis, the Zuppigers were delighted with the visit and the souvenir - but only until SF DRS took the beer back.

Fundraising Festland is helping to make the Swiss Mountain Aid collection week a high-flying event.The work of Swiss Mountain Aid is to become better known. For this reason, Berghilfe is conducting a campaign around the national collection week from August 23 to 28. Concrete projects are to be used to show why mountain aid is necessary. It is true that Berghilfe can count on loyal support. The creative concept for the campaign, developed by the Festland communications agency in St. Gallen, shows people whose quality of life has improved thanks to Swiss Mountain Aid. A poster illustrates the progress with children who have a safe way to school thanks to the renovated Matt - Weissenberge cable car. In Rona, an organic goat cheese dairy can be operated thanks to Swiss Mountain Aid. A third poster shows a resident of the new retirement home in Obersaxen, which is also supported by Swiss Mountain Aid.
Advertisements publicize hitherto little-known support projects such as donkey therapy for handicapped children in a mountain village in the Valais, or the "last chance for an entire region" with the dairy farmers in Selisberg.
In all subjects, a flipchart visualizes the organization's competence. The tasks of Berghilfe, the preservation of viable and worthwhile mountain agriculture, is also expressed in the new motto: "We help mountain farmers. With your help."
The posters and advertisements serve as the campaign's basic media in German and French-speaking Switzerland. Fundraising is carried out via a direct mail to around 600,000 households.
To mark the start of the campaign, the website was also relaunched: At www.berghilfe.ch, Berghilfe presents itself with a completely renewed website. Interested parties, donors and media representatives will find comprehensive information about the organization, which has been committed to sustainable, healthy mountain farming since 1942.
One of the most important features of the new website is the possibility to make a donation directly online by post or credit card. Visitors can also get a concrete picture of Berghilfe's work by reading selected project reports. Detailed information on the organization and the application process as well as a media section complete the online offering. All content is published in German and French.
The design concept and texts for the website were also created by the Festland communications agency. Website and CMS programming were carried out by OOS AG Open Operating Systems in Zurich in cooperation with Bitflux GmbH.
Meaningful projects: Mountain Aid uses posters to show what it does.
New website: Donations become possible at the click of a mouse.
Swiss Mountain Aid does meaningful work - and needs money: Mainland links the concerns. >> page 7
Andreas Panzeri

Weber Harbeke further education shows how you can also benefit from the Migros Club School for your professional career. The professional environment offers no challenge, everything is routine. With her new commercial for the Migros Club School, Weber Harbeke speaks from the soul of anyone looking for a career change. Time to take the next step: this is where the concept of Weber Harbeke's new commercial comes in. The emotional situation of potential students at the club school is shown using the example of three men. As usual, they go about their work, drink their after-work beer and go fishing together. But something is different. One by one, everyone asks themselves: "Where is de Roschee?" This is missing in all the scenes.
You guessed it: Roger has continued his education and found a new challenge. He has followed the promise of the Migros Club School: "We'll make sure you get ahead."
The aim of the spot is to raise awareness of the fact that Migros Club Schools offer a wide range of courses for career advancement in addition to the popular courses in the areas of languages, sport and hobbies.
The clear brand promise and catchy claim is "More success". The truth of this statement is confirmed by the above-average success rate of Klubschul graduates in federal diploma examinations.
The 30-second commercial was shot in Zurich by the two English directors Richard Hickey and Colin Howard. It was produced by freelance agency producer Cem Capanoglu with Snap Film. The commercial will be used on Swiss television and various regional stations.
Disappeared from the round: The fourth man has made a career for himself.
Andreas Panzeri