Last but not least: PR 1.0
"Kassensturz" celebrates its 40th birthday. The Bart contribution shows that not only Roger Schawinski, but also advertising and public relations have changed significantly.
The program was only a year old in 1975 and "Kassensturz" was already exposing the advertisement as misleading whitewashing. In a commercial, Philips demonstrated that it only takes a few seconds to shave half of the face. Cleaning the razor included, of course.
The young Schawinski could not and would not accept this and unsuccessfully recreated the process. Even if it was more lazy and less technical - but such details were of interest at a time when "Kassensturz" reported the results of non-standardized Detergent tests by housewives ("I think everyone is white"), nobody.
With the help of advanced slow-motion technology, the program then unmasked the commercial: the beard was pre-shaved! The actor's well-intentioned attempts to cover up the "bit" by skillfully using his hands ended in the editorial offices of Swiss television.
What was considered outrageous back then no longer attracts attention today. Or when was the last time you asked yourself whether the advertised cleaning agent really removes millimeter-thick limescale deposits with a single wipe without leaving any residue?
The segment becomes really amusing when Philips representative Wehrli has to justify his miracle shave on camera. Schawinski - whose voice can only be attributed to the current Radio 1 boss with the utmost concentration and a little imagination - takes the gentleman to task with stoic composure and within the scope of his abilities at the time: "Why do you let the viewer believe that they are shaving... when the whole thing is taking place on skin that has already been shaved?" The way Wehrli then tried to get his Philishave head out of the noose should make today's media spokespeople and public relations officers blush. Excuses that still deserve to be called that.
According to Wehrli, they simply wanted to show the many Philishave owners how to shave in the best possible way. The film fulfills this "demonstration purpose". Schawinski wants to know why the before-and-after effect with the beard was used. Now Wehrli shoots the excuse bird: a beard is part of shaving. The "pre-shave" is explained by the fact that the scene was filmed several times and the beard consequently became shorter and shorter. In the end - purely by chance, of course - the last scene was used.
This nostalgic awkwardness seems charming today. Back then, however, viewers were sold for being dumber than they were. Today, according to Schawinski 40 years later ("Colon", 15.12.13), the "Kassensturz" guests are so media-trained that they say "nothing clever" in the first five minutes if possible, so that they can get through the seven-minute interview unscathed. From the viewer's point of view, this is perhaps still better than being sedated with an overly clumsy robber story. (hae)
The contribution:
