Last but not least: Swap picture for Titanic

On November 8, it's that time again: the special edition of Bild "Bild zum Mauerfall" will be dropped into every mailbox in Germany - free of charge and unsolicited. Free editions have already been distributed to over 40 million households three times in recent years, sometimes for the Bundestag elections, sometimes for the soccer World Cup. Many critical citizens feel harassed by this, as they generally want nothing to do with the Bild newspaper. And they don't want to be part of the record circulation with which the controversial tabloid sells its advertisements. According to Lawblog.com For example, a full-page advertisement in the free editions costs around four million euros. Regardless of whether the newspaper is read or ends up directly in the waste paper - delivered is delivered.

This can be remedied by popular stickers in different variations, which annoyed citizens can use to defend themselves against the ubiquitous forced reading.

Another way to defend yourself: Bild publishes an e-mail address - this time [email protected] - to which you can send an "objection e-mail" and thus be excluded from delivery. It should be, because it didn't really work last time, as the watchblog Bildblog.com writes. Many authors were nevertheless sent a newspaper because, according to Axel Springer, the objections were not received in time.

This time, however, tolerating the delivery could be worthwhile even for Bild opponents. The satirical magazine Titanic is organizing a "forced exchange" in Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Hanover on 8 November: the Bild issue can be exchanged for the latest Titanic issue free of charge. Excerpt from Facebook:

For the big wall event on the evening of November 8, 2014, we will exchange every (in words: every) free picture for a Titanic fact magazine. No ifs, ands or buts! Make the most of your paper waste and enjoy a late summer evening with mulled wine (free), Wall propaganda (free) and colorful joke booklets (Titanic).

The campaign is being organized by the satirical party Die Partei and its leader Martin Sonneborn, former editor-in-chief of Titanic and EU parliamentarian. One of the party's declared aims is to rebuild the Wall. In the GDR, the obligation for visitors to exchange a certain amount of Ostmark at an inflated rate when entering the country was called "forced exchange".

For Titanic magazine, which is not only celebrating its 35th anniversary with the November issue, but also the legendary front page on the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ("Zonen-Gaby (17) im Glück (BRD): Meine erste Banane"), the marketing coup is likely to pay off - despite the free print run. In contrast to the Bild newspaper, Titanic will gain a lot of sympathy and presumably many new readers with this campaign. (hae)