Media At its general meeting, the Interessengemeinschaft elektronische Medien (Igem) elected a new Board of Directors, confirming President Urs Renner as well as Andy Lehmann, Bruno Oetterli, Corinne Blaser, Ingrid Deltenre, Michi Frank and Marcel Bosshard. The latter now represents the window marketers, having moved from Publicitas Webservices to IP Multimedia as COO. Ueli Weber (Publimedia Webadvertising) now sits on the Board for the internet marketers. Also new are Tarkan Oezküp (TeleNewsCombi) in place of Paul Grau as representative of private television and the media specialists Cosima Giannachi (Mindshare), Josi Bauer (Starcom Adplus) and Stefan Küng (Initiative MediaWestern).

Together with Remo Garbini, Thomas Biedermann has founded an agency "exactly as you want it." In the stairwell, you first stumble across painters and are accompanied by the electrician's drill during the interview. Thomas Biedermann and Remo Garbini are converting a former hotel on Falkenstrasse in Zurich's Seefeld district into an advertising agency. "When it opened in 1866, this was a breakfast room," says Biedermann. Coffee is still served, but the bright hall has become a meeting room. "A room steeped in history", which the two advertisers have now restored to its original state. But with many modern details. "We asked ourselves: How should the ambience be so that we feel comfortable while working? And that's exactly what we did, from the floors to the IT infrastructure," explains Biedermann. "When we start, we do it right. We first physically set up an agency and then we start working," he says, describing the concept behind the content. They want to be a "very classic advertising agency" with a focus on brand management. Just as they had imagined an advertising agency back then, when Garbini and Biedermann had already worked as creatives and consultants in the same team at DDB in Küsnacht for six years. Garbini later moved to Rüschlikon, Biedermann to the Zurich industrial area.
He actually wanted to make a career there. Managing Director Biedermann was intended to become CEO at Wunderman. But before that, he took some time out in Australia with his wife and child. Under the southern sun, he came to a new realization: "I'm fed up with big management. I want to look after customers myself again." Brand management, as he used to do at DDB and Bosch & Butz.
Garbini and Biedermann know classic advertising and integrated communication "inside out". But in 80 percent of cases, "the classic advertising idea controls the other measures", they are convinced.
They have employed five people to start their new business. There is room for ten on the entire floor, and a second floor could be rented. Talking about growth is
at the moment, however. "But if not now - when else? We were personally at the stage where we simply had to take the step," they say at the time of founding the agency.
At Garbini, Biedermann, a fifty-fifty situation prevails - from the shareholding to the organization of the work. To avoid any stalemates, they have recruited Jörg Steiner, Vice Chairman of Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux, "the most important branding agency in Europe", as Chairman of the Board of Directors. However, this has nothing to do with an intended network. "We spent quite a lot of money on our start-up, so it made sense for us to have a kind of coach advising us." A nice detail: Steiner was the CEO of DDB at the time. Garbini, Biedermann has already won Sony as its first budget. Gate Gourmet and Zürifäscht are also on the list. That was better than expected, because they didn't want to take any customers from former friends.
This attitude may have something to do with the fact that Biedermann once started out as a designer for church windows. However, the altruistic-sounding job was not much different from advertising. "You have to work with artists who are just as bitchy as people in advertising. In addition, a church congregation is no easier a customer than a producer of consumer products." For Biedermann, musician would have been another possible profession. He first played punk and later with many Bernese rock musicians. He also had his own rock show in the early days of Radio Förderband. Today, however, the music has almost fallen silent - because he didn't want to be semi-professional. "I only make music worse, and I'm no good at my job either" - so he preferred to do everything right in advertising.
There are still no pictures on the walls of his new agency: Thomas Biedermann.

Andreas Panzeri

The advertising agency Bonaparte has been entrusted with all communication measures by Roll-Laden, a Zurich specialist store that sells slalom and longboards - special skateboards for use on sloping roads. With the newly opened online store (realized by the web agency Screengang), Roll-Laden now wants to spread the asphalt surfing lifestyle outside of Zurich. Bonaparte is helping with various advertising materials such as posters, postcards and guerrilla measures.

Commentary Communication theorist Norbert Bolz defends consumerism as a central Western value and shows that optimism and critical reason are not mutually exclusive. And shows that optimism and critical reason are not mutually exclusive. Norbert Bolz recently confidently announced in the journal Literaturen that nothing written by Theodor W. Adorno still counts in today's philosophy. "Bolz knocks Adorno off his pedestal", even the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was outraged by this patricide and asked in annoyance: "How come you want this today and that tomorrow? That you promote dental care in Essen and the consumer good child in Berlin? Sometimes you're a sociologist, then a communication theorist, then a media scientist, and now you're trying to pull off a coup and put on the mantle of a philosopher." Such malice is hardly able to challenge the contemporary apologist. After all, Bolz makes targeted use of the media and thinks little of the generation of professors who equate unworldliness with reason and incomprehensibility with intellectual depth (see page 21).
In his two books, "The Consumerist Manifesto" and "Conformists of Otherness", Bolz creates a bright alternative to the "Grand Hotel Abyss" of the Frankfurt School. While Adorno's epigones fixate on the destructive tendencies of modernity and preach sermons against the "culture industry" with its "inhumane logic of exploitation", Bolz defends hedonism and consumerism as a lifestyle because it is the "immune system of world society against the virus of fanatical religions". According to Bolz, everything that has been criticized as the "consciousness industry" since the halcyon days of the Frankfurt School fulfils the important task of symbolically creating alternity for people who have become indifferent to society: "Fashion gives the masses a comforting complacency with form."
Methodologically, Bolz is indebted to his mentors. In contrast to the "beautiful dream of a bad world", as prophets of doom conjure it up like a prayer wheel, optimist Bolz calls for the world to be seen as successful, freely based on Hegel's formula: What is real is reasonable and what is reasonable is real. Pessimism is ultimately lazy thinking, says Bolz, because it is easier to say no than to understand the world in all its complexity.
It is only logical that, for Bolz, advertising is not only a seduction of pleasure, but also a "permanent counter-sermon" to common cultural criticism. Advertising tells consumers that they do not have to feel guilty. Understood in this way, the "consumerist manifesto" is a valid counter-proposal to the aimless criticism of capitalism that is currently finding a broad breeding ground in the anti-globalization movement.
Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief

No Swiss advertising in Cannes: neither at the Cyber Lions nor in the "Press & Outdoor" competition could a prize be picked up; three advertisements and one poster made it onto the shortlist. The exhibition of the finalists showed the high level of international competition and a clear tendency towards cheekier advertising. With the best will in the world, there was nothing to be gained for Switzerland in this environment.

Advertising expenditure Compared to the previous year, the Publicitas Index fell by 1.3 points from 100.8 points in April to 99.5 points in May. This low for advertising expenditure in the daily press has never been reached since the index was introduced in 1993. In contrast, there is a small silver lining on the horizon in neighboring Germany. Here, the recovery continued in May: German advertisers spent 3.5 percent more than in the previous year. The advertising market in Switzerland's most important export country was already up 6.9% in April.

The Zurich advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat has been awarded the contract to launch a new game for the intercantonal national lottery Swisslos.Jung von Matt won the pitch against three competitors. The contract includes the development of a corporate design, classic advertising and point-of-sale measures. The name and rules of the game are still a secret for the time being. Initial work will begin in the fall
to be seen.

Outdoor advertising Because passenger numbers at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse plummeted by 18 percent in the first five months of this year, the South Terminal, which is currently under construction, will be completed but will not go into operation in the fall. This also means that the French outdoor advertising company JC Decaux, which has the poster concession there, will not be able to market its poster sites.

Traffic radio TCS has traffic jams reported by 5 radios It is now certain that the Touring Club of Switzerland (TCS) will set up its new, Switzerland-wide traffic information center (see WW 19/03) with 25 private radio partners on July 1. These are the radio stations 32, 3iii, Aktuell, Argovia, BE1, BeO, Canal 3, Central, Chablais, Edelweiss, Fiume Ticino, Fréquence Jura, Fribourg, Grischa, Jura Bernois, Lausanne FM, Munot, One FM, Rhône FM, Ri, Rottu, RTN, Sunshine, Tropic and Zürisee. A further broadcasting partner is being discussed for Zurich. (mk)

Column For serious business journalists, publicity-shy entrepreneurs should be a challenge. After all, there are already more than enough home stories about CEOs and rhetorical PR pathos, and the worst sin in the media society is the refusal to participate in the incessant noise-making in the press and PR marketplace. Above all, entrepreneurs who refuse to be pried into by journalists quickly come under suspicion of being up to no good. Those who remain silent have something to hide, is the basic conviction of media investigators, who in such cases quickly set about filling this void with all sorts of conjectures. The "Netzwerk Recherche", a journalists' club that feels particularly committed to shedding light on the dark zones in public life, even awards a prize to the "Infoblocker of the Year": the "closed oyster" is a reproach turned to stone for politicians and entrepreneurs who do not want to make a fuss about their actions.
In 2001, the unfortunate thing fell on the feet of German Interior Minister Otto Schily; this year it hit the Albrecht brothers, who have made the food discounter Aldi flourish. They don't publish annual reports, they hardly ever give interviews, they generally don't answer journalists' questions, and - good God - they don't even have a press department. No wonder they didn't come to Hamburg in April to receive their oyster from the hands of the "Netzwerk Recherche" laudator.
I confess that I liked this refusal, although of course I take the close observation of commercial enterprises for granted. After all, about such Aldi activities, which
Journalists can inform themselves about issues that are of public interest, even if this can sometimes be tedious. The product quality, which is once again being called into question, can be checked by independent institutes; the corporate strategy should be no secret to industry insiders; there are state control bodies to prevent the improper exploitation of market power, the results of which are publicly available; and the best way to find out how employees are treated is to talk to them. There is also currently no scandal with an unclear background in and around the company. So what do you really want to know from the two old men?
It is the silence itself,
that provokes. Companies and entrepreneurs who do not take part in the great channel noise are troublemakers in the media world.
society. The Bertelsmann model has long been considered the norm: pompous rhetoric about social responsibility, visionary chatter about the company of the future and informing the public about the office design and the CEO's favorite sport. It is the transformation of business information into home stories to which the media so loudly assert their right. Almost nothing significant ever comes of it. In a recent portrait of Edda Fels, the spokeswoman for the Axel Springer publishing house, you could read about how much this lady is appreciated by journalists, even though she only disseminates zero information. No reporter knows any more afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk to her.
So instead of scolding the Albrecht brothers, jour-
nalists should think about what is really worth knowing about these entrepreneurs. They may then realize that their curiosity certainly cannot be satisfied in interviews or via press offices and PR departments. Only those who are too comfortable to take Aldi's silence seriously as a challenge
will have fun with the kind of antics that the "Netzwerk Recherche" obviously considers necessary.
Heribert Seifert is the media and culture correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.

At the beginning of August, Ivan Schultheiss, former Head of Advertising at Weltwoche, will take over as Head of Key Account Management at Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG). Roger Möschler, who headed this department on an interim basis for a year, will return to his duties as designated Head of Marketing....
The Baar-based marketing agency Linaxis has strengthened its team with Sandra Bizzarri. She is responsible for consulting, conception and implementation in the areas of marketing strategy, marketing communication and public relations.
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Andreas Jäggi will take over the management of the Zurich branch of PR agency Mediapolis in mid-June. He replaces Kenneth Angst, who has gone into business for himself.
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Beat Hodel is the designated head of the Polycom Zurich course. He has been a course instructor and lecturer at the Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising and Communication for over 20 years.
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On June 1, Jost Wirz stepped down as CEO of the Wirz Group. The new three-member Group Management Board will be chaired by CFO
Peter Strub, his deputy Geri Aebi, CEO of the subsidiary agency Wirz Werbung. The third member is Urs Binggeli, CEO of Wirz Identity. At the AGM of Wirz Holding AG at the end of June, Wirz will also hand over the chairmanship of the Board of Directors to Christian Steinmann (as already announced in April). In return, he will take over the office of Vice Chairman from him, which he will perform on a full-time basis.
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The corporate publishing agency Yesway in Zurich is losing its co-founder and partner Renato Turri, who wants to change career direction at the end of August. Linus Fuchs and Reto Bärlocher, the two remaining co-owners of Yesway, intend to continue to run the company in the usual style.

Commuter newspaper The planned step-by-step takeover of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten by Tamedia and Berner Zeitung (BZ) remains a nail-biter: the Competition Commission (ComCo) is subjecting the project to an in-depth review because it sees indications of dominant positions in the regional advertising markets of Berne and Zurich as well as in the national reader market for commuter newspapers. Tamedia and BZ have the highest-circulation daily newspapers and a wide range of multimedia offerings in their home markets. The in-depth review will last a maximum of four months (until the beginning of October).