"Stupid publicity stunt": Frank Baumann rages, Bergün lifts photo ban

Media interest is high and Bergün has been the talk of the town for two days. After the notification about an alleged photo ban in Bergün was sent out on Tuesday, the Graubünden mountain village, which is otherwise known and loved primarily for its sledging, entered what is probably the biggest public stage in its history.

A glance at the comment columns of the major news portals on Tuesday already revealed that many people had misunderstood the action and, above all, misinterpreted it as a serious ban (Werbewoche.ch reported).

"Absolutely stupid advertising stunt"

In Thursday's edition of Blick, two celebrities follow suit. Former advertiser Frank Baumann has little or nothing to say about the sensational campaign and doesn't mince his words: "For me, the clumsy campaign by the people of Bergün is an absolutely stupid advertising stunt. It's not only damaging for the people of Bergün, it's also counterproductive for tourism in general." The director of the Arosa Humorfestival suspects that the "desperate" place is obviously threatened with extinction in order to bring a photo ban into being. "With a bit of sense, more efficient means could have been used to attract visitors," he tells Blick. And: "A silly joke like this may not cost anything, but it certainly won't bring in any additional tourists either".

The second expert interviewed by Blick agrees with Baumann. The 80-year-old hotelier Art Furrer thinks it is "utter nonsense". Like many commentators, Furrer does not address the tongue-in-cheek nature of the campaign: "Tourists like to take pictures of everything." This is the cheapest form of advertising there is - which is why Bergün's behavior at this time in particular is "completely wrong".

International media coverage

Meanwhile, the campaign has also triggered an international media response. He is "broken" but doing well, says Bergün tourism director Marc-Andrea Barandun to the news agency SDA: "My three phones have been ringing at the same time for two days".

The SDA also writes that the campaign is "rather ridiculed" in the rest of Bünderland. The tenor: the campaign won't last longer than a few days in the media anyway, whereas the ban could lose a lot of goodwill with guests in a short space of time. And according to surveys by the Graubünden media, tourists in Bergün are reacting with confusion or even anger. They don't want to take the church tower home, but a picture of it, a hiker from Zurich is quoted by Südostschweiz.

Nevertheless, with a small budget, the campaign catapulted the equally small Bergün onto the public map within a very short space of time. And has aroused the curiosity of many people who have never seen or heard of the Grisons mountain village before. A look at Google Trends shows this: searches for Bergün increased dramatically worldwide - and especially in Germany - after the launch of the campaign.

Bergün lifts ban

Whether the campaign is really just a "silly joke" remains to be seen. Or was - because according to 20 minutes Bergün has since announced that it will lift the ban at the next municipal assembly, despite interim assurances that it will stick to it. This was stated in the reply sent by the Bergün municipal office on Thursday to a person who complained about the photography ban.

As SDA wrote late on Thursday afternoon, the swift lifting of the ban had been planned from the outset. "The photo ban is an action in several acts with a planned dramaturgy," says Cyrill Hauser from Jung von Matt/Limmat. "We expected controversy," he tells the news agency. We were not surprised by the extent of the negative comments. Moreover, the negative wave is already subsiding and positive comments are piling up. The campaign was received more positively abroad than in Switzerland right from the start. (hae)