The ban on symbols associated with the Third Reich is particularly urgent, Justice Minister Beat Jans told the media in Bern on Friday. This is because anti-Semitic incidents have increased significantly, both worldwide and in Switzerland. The symbols representing hatred, violence and suffering must disappear from the public sphere.

Context decides

The mere display of Nazi symbols in public is not a punishable offense today, said Jans. However, the symbols are prohibited in connection with advertising for the ideology they stand for or if they are used against people or groups in a derogatory manner.

The Federal Council wants to ban not only swastikas, Hitler salutes and SS runes, but also numerical codes such as "18" and "88", which could be read as "Adolf Hitler" or "Heil Hitler". The context should decide when such symbols are punishable.

The figures printed on a football or basketball shirt could still be displayed, said Jans in response to a question from journalists. A legal practice must be established for the use of these numbers, among other things. Incidentally, fines issued could be appealed against.

The Federal Council is planning exceptions to the ban for educational, artistic and journalistic purposes. For example, media reports on anti-Semitic incidents would be permitted. They would also be permitted in history lessons, satirical and historical presentations.

Consideration for other cultures

The Federal Council is also planning exceptions for symbols of existing religions. The swastika is a very old symbol, he writes. In Asia, and particularly in India, it is often associated with Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism, he writes in the draft message.

Called the swastika in Sanskrit, the swastika has the meaning of a sun sign in these cultures and is seen as a "lucky charm". The Federal Council therefore wants to exclude existing religious symbols that look similar or identical to Nazi symbols from the ban from the outset.

The Federal Council expressly wants to ban the use, wearing, display and dissemination of National Socialist symbols. It also wants to prohibit swastika graffiti on posters or house walls, for example.

Preserving freedom of expression

The new criminal provisions must respect the fundamental right to freedom of expression, said Jans. However, it is about setting clear limits to an ideology that does not want to allow freedom of expression, that spreads hatred and injustice and that virtually fights against respect for minorities.

According to the Federal Council, the ban would also apply in virtual space. The problem is that in such cases the perpetrators are often anonymous and it is difficult to find them.

With this law, the Federal Council wants to fulfill a mandate from Parliament, at least a first part of it. The councillors also called for a ban on extremist, racially discriminatory and violence-glorifying symbols of other ideologies. The Federal Council intends to implement this in a later step.

Independent law planned

The Federal Council is proposing a separate law to enforce the ban. It writes that this is the quickest way to close the gap in the legislation. And it would be possible to punish violations by means of administrative fines.

If the standard were written into the Criminal Code instead, public prosecutors and courts would have to deal with bearers of Nazi symbols. In the eyes of the Federal Council, this would make the existing overload of the justice system worse.

The consultation on the law banning the public use of National Socialist symbols will last until March 31, 2025. (SDA/swi)

Thomas Egger has been with Swiss Post since 2005, where he has held various positions over the past 20 years. Among other things, he was Head of Group Accounting and Controlling, Group Strategy, Group Risk Management and Head of Finance at Post Logistics.

Since 2021, Egger has headed the Finance Services unit, which bundles various financial competencies such as procurement and accounting in a service house with around 250 employees at five locations in Switzerland. He was also interim Head of Group Finance and a member of the Board of Directors of PostFinance and the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Post pension fund. From 2002 to 2005, he was Head of Group Controlling and Treasury and Deputy Head of Finance at Valora Management. Prior to that, from 1987 to 2002, he held various positions in Switzerland and the USA at Swiss Bank Corporation and later UBS, most recently as Head of Controlling Private Banking.

"Thomas Egger has many years of experience in strategic and financial management at Executive Board and Board of Directors level. He is also very familiar with the challenges of a public service company in dealing with stakeholders thanks to his previous functions. Thomas Egger therefore optimally meets the demanding requirements of this key position," said SRG CEO Susanne Wille in a press release. "His expertise will be of great benefit to SRG in the upcoming transformation process and will help to ensure that the financial planning of SRG as a whole continues to be prudent and reliable." (pd/swi)

Deligno emerged from a large number of specialized and established sawmills. The Emmental-based company is currently investing in innovative production equipment and technologies to improve quality while conserving resources. At the same time, the Heads agency is taking the company's image to a new level.

The new corporate design combines Deligno's passion and expertise and pays homage to the renewable, climate-neutral natural product wood and the people who work with it.

A design that connects

The striking logo visualizes the origin of the wood and its processing. It also symbolizes the company's steady growth by bringing together a wide range of skills and businesses. The idea of growth also applies to the employees, which is reflected in the employer promise "Working and growing with wood".

The "Roca" logo and corporate typeface are intended to emphasize the down-to-earth and approachable nature of the brand. The harmonious color concept picks up on the natural beauty of wood. The colors walnut brown and fir green meet the strong "Deligno orange" as an accent, which is reflected in the sawn wood.

Visual worlds that tell stories

The image concept focuses on the emotional history of wood: from the forest as the source, to the people who use their expertise to get the best out of the raw material, to the processed product for numerous applications. The images provide an authentic insight into the working world of Deligno and place the specialists at the center of attention. This gives the brand a lively, human face with differentiating power. As an important design element, an open, rectangular frame guides the focus specifically to the product or the specialist and creates a high recognition value.

Communication for a new product

The marketing of the "EcoFix" coating started at the same time as the rollout of the rebranding. From the development of the product name to the implementation of the communication measures, Heads supported the launch of this new surface technology.

The newsletter, brochure, sample box and product presentation were designed. On the day of the product launch, customers and the media were also shown the new website with optimized user guidance and a new design.

Responsible at Heads Corporate Branding: Ralph Hermann (overall responsibility), Sina Frank (strategy and text), Samira Ciraci (consulting and text) Marco Simonetti (design), Roman von Arx (graphics/production). Responsible at Deligno: Monika Walser (CEO), Mathias Boltshauser (Executive Board and Project Manager). Photography: Manuel Stettler (stettlerphotography.ch). Website programming: Daniel Schmidt (prismalogix.ch).

The Federal Council determined these reductions on Friday. The reason for the increase is that there is enough money in the funding pot. The federal government has CHF 30 million at its disposal for the indirect promotion of regional and local daily and weekly newspapers. The Federal Council had reduced the delivery discounts for the current year.

On October 1, 2024, 147 regional and local press titles met the requirements for a delivery allowance as part of indirect press subsidies. They have a total annual circulation of 104.6 million copies - 5.9 million fewer than a year ago.

Next year, the 870 titles in the membership and foundation press will receive more indirect funding. As the CHF 20 million available for funding was not exhausted last year, publishers will receive 22 centimes per copy in 2025, which is 2 centimes more than before.

Innovations under discussion

Efforts are underway in Parliament to extend indirect press funding for a limited period of seven years. The aim is to give smaller publishers financial leeway for the digital transformation.

These proposals take up undisputed elements of the media package that was rejected by the people at the ballot box on February 13, 2022. Regional radio and TV stations, the Press Council, journalism training and news agencies are also to receive more money in future. (SDA)

Together with APG|SGA, the agency set out to find "perfectly imperfect" poster sites for this campaign for the Meier Garden Center in Dürnten and the surrounding area. Each subject was carefully matched in advance to the location and the existing sprawling greenery. The interplay between the poster and the real environment places the autumn cut directly in the target group's field of vision.

"When I received the request from Ingo, I was convinced that such poster sites didn't exist in Switzerland. The agency proved me wrong with a few sample photos," says Peer Kleinfeldt, Key Account Manager at APG|SGA Switzerland. "Some of these locations are on hiatus or cannot be 'gardened' for other reasons. So we went to great lengths to make this unusual poster idea possible and to find suitable poster sites."

The APG poster sites are normally in a well-kept condition - some were even cut during the poster site scouting. So it was important to be quick, flexible and attentive. Together with the gardening professionals, eleven poster sites were finally selected according to correct gardening criteria and the shoot was carried out with real employees and the appropriate cutting tools. JCM Werbedruck ensured that the posters were perfectly timed.

"We wanted a seasonal campaign that would make our range of services known in the region," says Christian Rauser, Head of Marketing at Garten-Center Meier. "We think the idea of merging a poster with reality as a third dimension is brilliant. And the fact that our own employees can be seen tackling the posters was very well received both internally and externally. We also received appreciative feedback from the green sector."

The campaign is being extended to social media and supplemented with interactive elements to increase its reach. Among other things, gardening enthusiasts can look forward to the "Hedge Hiding" competition: vouchers can be found hidden in hedges around the garden center.

The campaign has been running for several weeks now and will continue into the winter months, as trees and shrubs can be pruned until the end of February, depending on the species. From March onwards, it will be bird protection time again.

Responsible at Garten-Center Meier: Christian Rauser (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Ingo Zürich: Michael Gallmann, Marika Magnuszewska, Jan Saurer, Jael Abderhalden, Julia Staub (Creation), Susi Martin (Project Management), Katharina Seiler (DTP), Swen Morath (CEO/CCO).

True to the motto "Showing how it's done", the work honored by the ADC serves as a role model and compass for the communications industry itself as well as its talents and clients. The ADC jury is made up of the leading creatives in the communications industry as well as the most competent specialists from the creative industry. Together, they discuss and evaluate the submissions and define the benchmarks with their assessments. The jury will judge work that was conceived in Switzerland between January 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025 and published in Switzerland and/or abroad. The Submission deadline ends on April 1, 2025.

Various innovations

By merging the Film & Audio Craft categories and splitting them off from the idea-driven categories "Audio" and "Film", it should now be possible to evaluate the submitted works even more competently. From the jury's point of view, the respective specialists from these genres will be able to use their expertise in a targeted manner.

And whether there are creative content creators who meet the ADC's standards? ADC President Thomas Wildberger has only come across "a few really brilliant influencers" so far: "It's still a relatively young discipline that could simply be left to its fate. But I believe that as ADC, we have an obligation to include this category and improve it by judging it." A new category, the Creative Influencer Award, was created for this purpose.

There are now multiple gold awards

From 2025, it will also be possible to win gold multiple times in different categories for the same work. For example, a commercial that is worthy of gold in "Film", "Film Craft" and "Art Direction" could win the triple. The same applies in green to an ad that earns - and receives - the highest award once in both "Text" and "Ad".

With the "Gender Compensation" initiative, which was launched last year, it is still possible to highlight the underrepresentation of women in creative leadership positions by using the tool to list the percentage of credits among men and women in the work submitted. An imbalance can be compensated for in monetary terms. In this way, the club is aiming for an excellent 50:50 reality, which will still not be achieved in 2025, according to the report.

An overview of the ADC Switzerland submission guidelines are to be found here. And Click here for the participation platform.

"Laughter as liberation, wit as a weapon: especially in times when there is little to laugh about, humor is all the more important - perhaps even vital," said Jacqueline Strauss, Director of the Museum of Communication, to the media on Thursday.

With a single image, a drawing tells entire stories, opens up abysses, stimulates thoughts and makes people laugh at the same time. According to the museum, the press drawing is a top communicative achievement and an underestimated journalistic art.

The exhibition shows what was on the agenda in 2024: the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Nemo in first place at the ESC, a 13th AHV pension for Switzerland, extreme weather with flooding, the Olympics in Paris, the elections in the USA and the landing of Swiss army planes on the highway.

Swiss Cartoon Award goes to Andreas Ackermann

As part of the exhibition, the award for the best cartoon of the year was also presented for the second time. This year's prize, worth 1,000 Swiss francs, goes to Zurich cartoonist Andreas Ackermann - whose pen name is "Ogre". His cartoon "Halloween 2024" was published online on October 31, 2024 on the satire platform The petard published. "The Middle East conflict has shown how difficult it is to take a stand, even for cartoonists. After more than a year of war, there is no longer a simple good and evil classification, and this cartoon sums it up wonderfully," says Marco Ratschiller, cartoonist and president of the Gezeichnet association, explaining the jury's decision.

Second place was awarded ex aequo to the works of Vincent Di Silvestro "Albert Rösti rouvre la porte du nucléaire" (Vigousse) and Ruedi Widmer's "Bank Robbery" (The Land messenger) was chosen. Third place went to the cartoon "Sur le chemin de la Maison Blanche" (NZZ on Sunday) by Patrick Chappatte on the election of Donald Trump.

The "Gezeichnet 2024" exhibition runs from December 13 to February 23 and includes almost 250 works by over 50 press illustrators. (SDA/pd/swi)

The agency ranking of Leading Swiss Agencies LSA is based on an evaluation of the gross operating income (GOP) generated by LSA agencies for 2023 and provides an overview of the communication and media agencies in Switzerland organized in the association. The association compiles the ranking annually as a guide to the Swiss communications market. Within the respective category, the agencies are listed according to the actual ARR achieved.

Publicis leads two rankings

The most profitable LSA agency this year is Publicis Communications, consisting of Publicis Communications Zurich/Lausanne, Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis, with gross operating income of between CHF 75 and 100 million. A few months ago, Group CEO Dr. Alexander Haldemann explained his growth strategy in an interview with m&k - this now appears to have borne fruit.

Farner Consulting follows in second place with Rod Kommunikation and Webrepublic is now in third place.

In addition, Publicis Groupe continues to lead the ranking of agency groups. As last year, the Jung von Matt Group is in second place, ahead of Omnicom Media Group Switzerland, which has now moved up to third place.

EssenceMediacom tops media agency ranking

EssenceMediacom, with gross operating income of between CHF 17.5 and 20 million, is now the most profitable media agency among the LSA media agencies. Second place goes to Publicis Media Zurich/Lausanne, and Biggie Zurich/Geneva is now in the top 3.

The BBE is made up of the agency's own services invoiced to clients, including freelancers: fees from consulting of all kinds, compensation for copywriting, graphic and other work according to the income statement, excluding VAT and excluding transitory items or income of a different nature.

The journalist had obtained the blueprints for a 3D-printed gun online in 2019. According to the Federal Supreme Court, her sole intention was to show in a report how easy it is to obtain and assemble such a weapon from a 3D printer and what dangers it poses to public safety.

With the broadcast by RTS on April 7, 2019 the journalist "acted exclusively within the scope of her journalistic activities", the Federal Supreme Court stated on Thursday in a statement on its public deliberations.

No criminal network supported

A conviction of the journalist for violations of the Weapons Act is not compatible with freedom of expression in accordance with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); and this article also includes freedom of the media and press, the federal judges stated in a press release.

In view of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), punishment is not necessary in a democratic society. Nor does this correspond to a compelling social need. In this context, the Federal Supreme Court rather emphasizes that the ECtHR regularly underlines the watchdog function of the media.

In the opinion of Switzerland's highest court, the journalist's actions did not lead to any significant danger to public safety. This is because she had always kept the weapon under lock and key, even when transporting it on the train.

Finally, the Federal Supreme Court found that the journalist did not support a criminal network in the production of the individual parts of the weapon, as she made use of publicly and legally available 3D printers. The journalist's actions were therefore to be considered lawful overall. (Judgment 6B_650/2022, 6B_664/2022) (SDA)

The Valora Group has 13 different sales formats in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Alexandra Tschan will be responsible for the media office for the entire Valora Group with immediate effect. The 37-year-old will also act as deputy to Sascha Heiniger, Head Corporate Communications & Strategic Branding at the Valora Group.

Tschan most recently held various positions at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. She started out as a media spokesperson and then took over the development and management of sustainability communication for the Migros Group. Before that, she worked as a journalist for radio, TV and print media. "In Alexandra Tschan, we have gained an experienced expert in the fields of media relations, storytelling and sustainability," says Heiniger. "I am very much looking forward to working with her and the entire team to further develop Valora's communication and brand strategy."

Pascal Santi joins from Blue Entertainment, where he was most recently Head of Media Sales & Sponsoring. In this position, he was responsible for all advertising marketing and sponsorship activities for Blue+ as well as the development of new advertising and sponsorship offers for TV, digital and cinema that were tailored to customer needs. Previously, the 45-year-old from Zurich held various positions in marketing for the Swiss Football League, Amag, SRG SSR and Credit Suisse. Santi studied Business Communications and Sports Management.

"Pascal Santi will primarily represent our RED+ streaming and data offering to the sports associations, our partners and the advertising market," says Alexander Grimm, CEO Ringier Sports and Red.Sport Network. "Due to the Red+ expansion into Germany and Austria, the expansion of the management board is a logical and necessary adjustment to our structures. I am very much looking forward to working with Pascal and the team."

Arpina manufactures high-quality mini-trampolines made of Swiss wood, which can also be equipped with a sofa section.

While developing its strategy, Normal recognized that although its trampoline line is priced higher than lower-quality competing products, it is certainly comparable to designer furniture. That is why, in its current campaign and on its website, the agency positions the trampoline as a piece of furniture designed equally for exercise and for enjoying life.

The launch film immediately demonstrates the product’s benefits. The story, told from the perspective of a little girl, is based on the primal human urge to jump around on furniture. The film was produced by Ansich under the direction of Swiss director Matthias Kappeler. Pepe Lienhard composed the music for the film. In the recording studio, he improvised a cacophony on his saxophone that culminates in a harmonious melody, thereby underscoring the Trampoline Chair’s benefits.

The campaign is being used in various formats and lengths and links to the online store, which was also created by Normal.

Person in charge at Budgetcomputer.ch: Silvan Schwarz (Managing Director). Responsible for Normal: Martin Arnold (CD/Copywriter), Sven Loskill (Digital Director). Person in charge at Ansich: Matthias Kappeler (Director), Lara Lienhard (Producer), Nicolas Burri, Thilo Gundelach (Assistant), Simon Hardegger (Color Grading), Uko – The Audio Suite (Recording Studio), Daniel Mistric (Sound Engineer), Pepe Lienhard (Saxophone).