Last but not least: Political action on eBay

In contrast to advertising campaigns, whose boundaries are set by the profile of the advertiser alone, the boundaries of political campaigns are obviously quite flexible in some cases. Artists from the Berlin Center for Political Beauty have now launched a campaign to make a statement against the uninspired election campaign and disenchantment with politics in Germany. On Tuesday, the Berlin action artists launched an auction of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and SPD candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the auction platform eBay. However, their online campaign came to a swift end. Less than 24 hours after the campaign began, according to SDA, it had already been stopped. Before the two offers were deleted, a relatively unfriendly caller from the Federal Chancellery asked the artists to remove the auctions. However, it is unclear exactly when the offers were deleted. They are still waiting for a concrete explanation from eBay, according to action artist Philipp Ruch, one of the co-initiators from Bern. In the telephone conversation with the Chancellery, Ruch offered that the Chancellor could buy herself free for 5.6 million euros. The employee then hung up.
The action artists wanted to use the proceeds from the auction to support a project to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean and the UN's World Food Program. According to Ruch, more than 10,000 visitors worldwide called up the auction of Angela Merkel after the auctions were announced. By yesterday evening, the highest bid for the Chancellor was 69 francs.
www.sda.ch