In the past, it was mainly trendy lounges and in-bars with a sense of authenticity, design and high quality that transported their customers into a relaxing dream world, but now the trend towards mood management is also emerging in the retail sector. This is nothing less than a soul massage recommended in the service of increasing sales. Globus, a department store chain belonging to the Migros Group, can be seen as a Swiss pioneer with its new business card at Zurich's Bellevue. Where people used to shop "au bon marché", a combination of high-end grocery store, cosmopolitan gastro concept and specialist store for everything that embellishes the kitchen and table has been created. This hedonistic paradise deliberately combines shopping and sophisticated entertainment: shop-o-tainment at its best. The focus is not on quick sales, but on conveying an attractive lifestyle. For the time being, interior designers can rub their hands in glee at this trend. In the medium term, star architects for flagship stores and new consumer temples in Switzerland will also get their turn. Major projects such as Sihlcity in Zurich, Westside near Bern or EbiSquare near Lucerne are to be realized in the coming years. Mood Communication for the new Globus.
(la)

Local TV The Central Swiss nightlife magazine Insider is getting its own show on Tele Tell. From January 15, "Insider TV" will be broadcast weekly, lasting three to four minutes and offering tips for the region. The program will be hosted by Insider editor Selina Schürch, who has already appeared on Tele Tell. The main sponsor is Media Markt. Insider has been published for 29 years and is currently read by around 60,000 people.

Advertising statistics Swiss newspapers recorded 5.8 percent fewer advertising pages in November than in the previous year, which is significantly above the annual average (-11.9%). In French-speaking Switzerland, the medium-sized daily newspapers even saw an increase of one percent, while the major titles suffered a minimal loss of 0.2 percent. The weeklies lost 2.5 percent, with a significant increase (21.9%) in job advertisements in the German titles. The free newspapers lost 5.6 percent. According to the Wemf advertising statistics, the volume of magazine advertising fell by ten percent.

The general importer Ofrag Vertriebsgesellschaft AG has awarded Jung von Matt/Limmat the contract to manage the Italian scooter brands Vespa and Piaggio, with Wirz Werbung as the account holder.

A jack of all trades: Euro-RSCG CEO Frank Bodin is not only an advertiser, painter, father of three, opera-goer and pianist, but also a poet: while most people's lyrical streak dries up when they leave secondary school (or even earlier), the star advertiser's has swelled into a veritable stream of poetry. The verses are published with (correctly?) stopped reading time in the trend gazette Kult. Here is a small sample:

Winter sports Even hardcore surfers can only dream of a double wave, but a halfpipe addict can only smile, as he gets his frozen waves winter after winter. He finds the best ones in Flims Laax Falera. And the best way to make the most of them is to attend the professional halfpipe courses at the snowboarding school, as Publicis has known for years. The Snowboard Driving School's opening motif uses a "big picture" and the ultimate call to "Stop dreaming. The halfpipe season has started again". The double wave has been on billboards and in snowboard and scene magazines since mid-November.

Hamburgers and cola are the favorite foods of Americans, but these fatty and sugary foods also help German advertising agencies to expand. Scholz & Friends arrived in Switzerland at the end of February with nothing but the Coca-Cola brand Powerade budget in its luggage (see also WochenInterview on page 22). Advertising legend Yvonne Hodel ensured the company's local roots as a member of the Board of Directors. Managing Directors Günther Schneider and Christian Binder named three medium-sized clients as their annual target - so far, however, only Viva Switzerland has joined Coca-Cola in the agency's portfolio. In return, Scholz & Friends gained a second well-known Swiss woman, Diana Strebel, for the Board of Directors. Another German agency is now announcing its arrival in Switzerland at the end of the year: Heye & Partner, Munich, the global lead agency for McDonald's, is reportedly planning to open a branch here in Switzerland. It could probably take over the local account of the hamburger chain from DDB Zurich. Agency head Jürgen Knauss would neither confirm nor deny the move to Switzerland. In any case, Heye has already reserved the appropriate web address. And with ex-Publicis manager Cornelia Harder, an accomplished Swiss advertising expert would also be available. (sm)

In a pitch against two other agencies, Matter & Partner won the budget from the City of Zurich's Department of Health and the Environment, with the focus of the campaign being on highlighting the social value of senior citizens. It will be launched in spring 2004 and, in addition to posters and advertisements, will include numerous other forms of advertising and PR measures.

"He is loved, he himself is inflamed with love/And magic looks make him happy like her/But through family strife they are condemned/To pluck the sweet fruit of scorned love," Shakespeare once wrote in the prologue to the most famous love drama in literature. While his two hostile families are called Montague and Capulet, the two protagonists in the Swiss advertising scene are named David Honegger and Cornelia Harder. Although their agency families Publicis (Harder) and McCann-Erickson (Honegger) do not speak of a feud between them, the leading positions of the two partners would inevitably have led to conflicts of interest. Fortunately, today the love story does not end in despair, poison and death, but finds a diplomatic solution: Managing Director Cornelia Harder, who was the logical successor to departing CEO Fredy Collioud, is leaving Switzerland's largest advertising agency. (la)

The traditional oyster feast hosted by the www.wilfriedstrasse.ch office community gave guests a small but delicious foretaste of what to expect during the upcoming Skihüttenterrassen fun weeks.The communication, IT and design competence center - consisting of the companies ID-Segmentmarketing, WA Maissen Meisterhans, Creacom, Endurit and Jaray Visual Concepts - invited guests to the garden (sic!) of the Rosengarten restaurant near Hottingerplatz to feast on slippery sea creatures, despite temperatures around freezing point and the prospect of cold feet. Because the visit was worth it. Only the very best Prosecco was served in the glass and fresh oysters à discrétion on the plate. To warm up, by the way, there was pea soup and tons of Spanish nuts and mandarins for those who despise live seafood - it is well known that oysters are highly detrimental to health if they have already died before being eaten.
The graduation ceremony for communication managers at the NZZ Bistro was also a good time to feast. The "Kantine" on Falkenstrasse enjoys cult status. And rightly so, as the graduates and their guests were able to see for themselves. Like the journalistic quality, the culinary quality of the "old aunt" is beyond reproach. NZZ publishing director Tobias Trevisan made sure that the whole event did not end with a full stomach. In addition to his hospitality, he presented all successful graduates with a one-year subscription to the newspaper, including the Sunday edition: brain food, so to speak.
Beat Fritschw wishes all readers - and of course the many (self-)performers who have appeared in this column throughout the year - a long and relaxing festive season and a happy new year. Because one thing is certain - the next party is sure to come. And we're already preparing for it: Many exciting events and advertising parties are already on the agenda for 2004, and we can find out where the communications, media and publishing industries meet for their parties at the various events in the scene. Do you already have something to report? Pick up the phone (01 296 97 98) or hit the keys ([email protected]). Event tips and further shortlist images are available online at www.werbewoche.ch
Noble Creuses No. 3 - quickly eaten and quickly disposed of.
In an oyster frenzy: Gabi Meisterhans and Christian Maissen (2nd from right) with Marc Bourgeois and Martin Dietschi (right) from Endurit.
Gian Meyerhofer, producer and owner of Fast Forward Film, with Astrid Kägi, client advisor at Le Temps.
Daniel Pauletto (right) proudly showed Dani Izquierdo, Andrea Salzmann (2nd from left) and Sandra Bliggenstorfer his new cell phone.
Copywriter Christoph Dill with Denise Müller from Müller's flying office, administrator in the Lean system.
No "Gfrörlis": Tages-Anzeiger team with Simon Flatt (l.), Gabi Wettstein and Dominique von Albertini.
Good packaging was half the battle: Delia Kümin (l.) and Petra Kreussler in the wintry garden restaurant.
There was cool sound at the graduation ceremony in the NZZ Bistro.
Tie connection: Tobias Trevisan, NZZ, PK President René Schmutz and sponsor Reto Kammermann (from left), Touring.
Best-of-connection: Monika Schreiner from UBS and Peter Gadient from C & A took the strongest exams.
Sawi-ZA-Connection: Franziska Helbling and Manfred Kranich (left) from Sawi with Heinz Egli, Chairman of the Admissions Committee.
Small agency connection: Markus Kammermann, Gaam Partner, Christian Staub, Scotti, and Andreja Sedeljsak (from left), Wyss & Partner.
Sports connection: "Time for golf again," said Sarah Schaller, Dany Kielholz, Didier Graf and Carmen Fischer (from left).
Eastern Switzerland connection: Marcel Brand, WRH Marketing, Smiljana Lazic, Ehrat Thoma + Herzog, and Marc Aebli (from left).
Bank connection: Simone Bühler from ZKB and Mathias von Wartburg, Bank Coop, share the joy of their diplomas.
Laughing connection: "Finally free time again," laughed Roman Jud and Pamela Hügli at the end of their training.

Photo agencies The German star advertising photographer Werner Bokelberg is parting ways with the Getty Images agency and opening his own online image store. In view of the millions of image requests per month at Getty, it was time to "establish our own quality under our own brand", explained Bokelberg, despite the good cooperation. Editors, agencies and advertisers now have access to a pool of 14,000 exclusive images at www.bokelberg.com.

Column Christoph Blocher, the favorite enemy of the politically correct standard media, becomes Minister of Justice. An opportunity for the media to (self-)critically rethink their left-liberal Blocher reflex. And for readers to form their own opinion: they have been writing against him for many years, and now Christoph Blocher has become Federal Councillor after all. In future, they will probably have to show him the minimum respect that his high office deserves. This hurts the politically pious soul of journalists - so much so that they will continue to accompany the unpopular magistrate with suspicion and malice in reserve. The businessman elected as minister presented a well-prepared succession plan for his chemical company - and made a 34-year-old woman, who is his daughter, its boss. However, the right-wing outsider, who is notorious for being reactionary and patriarchal, was asked about theoretically possible conflicts of interest, but not about the obvious contrast to the generally deplored discrimination against women. In the edition of "10 to 10", the dismantling of the ladies Metzler and Beerli was once again mourned with trembling indignation. However, the fact that someone like Blocher of all people had elevated a woman to the top position was not commented on. It could/must have turned out positively. And that still seems to be forbidden.
This latest flowering of the journalistic Blocher reflex is reminiscent of the old Furgler joke. Kurt Furgler decides to walk across the water and invites cameramen and reporters to join him. He enters the Aare and reaches the other bank with dry feet. The headline under the photo the next day reads: "Blick proves: Furgler can't even swim!"
Press and TV people are socialized in packs, as we all know; that's why they are used to following leading wolves, who are sometimes also called "journalistic leaders". And because almost all journalists (sorry: journalists) have studied almost the same thing, because they almost all live in lofts in Zurich West, because they (with 13 or 14 x 9000 plus company car) will soon be calling another strike for minimum wages - in short: Because they are almost all knitted with the same needle, they have also almost all internalized the same stuffy, socially secure terraced house socialism, which the valiant Robert Nef rightly assigns to a ubiquitous "governmental-media-educational complex".
Two years ago, Eric Hoesli, editor-in-chief of Le Temps, used surveys to prove that Swiss journalists are much further to the left than their readership. Now, no one is asking them to talk at the mouth of their readers. It would be enough if they would at least temporarily separate their professional duties from their own ideological impregnation.
Blocher and the press - this has always been a symptomatic, exciting and sometimes amusing duel. And will probably remain so for the time being. If Blocher wasn't completely resistant to advice, he would have at least occasionally pretended to take the press seriously in all his interviews. But I haven't read, heard or seen a single Blocher answer that didn't have that subliminally mocking tone: "Go ahead and ask, you little sausage, you have no idea anyway..."
Unfortunately, he was all too often right: time and again, the quality of the questions revealed that the politically correct, i.e. semi-leftist, attitude is usually more firmly established than the specialist and background knowledge. Also, the willingness to apply pre-cut thinking and writing templates was and is greater than the desire for unbiased (self-)reflection. However, this is essential in order to be able to pose and comment on the questions that need to be clarified in the new year in an informed manner. Will Blocher appoint a media spokesperson and if so, who? And what is he doing with the legions of "façade cleaners" (Blocherian for PR consultants) in his widely ramified justice and police department? In other words: Will he be stronger than the apparatus and resist the temptations of the classe politique in the longer term? Affaire à suivre...
> Karl Lüönd is a journalist, author and head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.