Striking: Last weekend, the opening of the 49th Venice Biennale was the feature story of the press.

Last weekend, the opening of the 49th Venice Biennale was the feature topic of the press. The Swiss press also reported extensively and prominently on the biennial showcase of contemporary art. However, anyone who wanted to read about it in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, which is not shy about its cultural reporting, looked into the void, at least during the 3-day vernissage period. Not even on Sunday was it possible to read about the opening ceremony on Saturday, although numerous members of the Italian government had their say at the event. But just those who have nothing more to say ... Be that as it may, the organizers of the Biennale ensured with a clever move that on Sunday nevertheless the front page advertised the international art exhibition. How? By cheekily placing an ad on it that contained all the necessary information, including the Internet address. And as we know, some readers can't distinguish between the advertising and editorial sections. Chandra Kurt
Column

Head line judge
by Martin Lanz
80 percent of people read only the headline of an ad. If they don't understand it, eight hundred thousand of one million francs have been misappropriated. Copywriting is therefore a very responsible task. My friend Markus Ruf quotes this headline in his latest column: "Many companies gain the experience they would have needed to buy the right computer on the wrong computer they bought." Capito? Short? Quick to understand? What the heck! We copywriters agree: mega.
Or what do you think of this one from WHS? It belongs to the brilliant series of daily ads, and it's still pretty young: "Is Maradona's only career now as a linesman?" I assume that the joke in this text was understood by less than one percent. But certainly by Christoph Daum. (But who is that?) After all, you have to know something about football and a lot about cocaine.
What is to be thought of texts that a small minority finds brilliant and a large majority does not understand? The question must be answered by who pays for these works. Obviously, there are always language sponsors who finance the fun of the job for us writers. So in the future, we could write headlines that have nothing to do with the product. For example: "Cats would buy whisky." As a footnote, the client might note. *This ad for Red Label was powered by Whiskas.
Pretty drunk, huh? Maybe by now you've understood the title of this column. You then belong to the very large majority. But who wants to belong there! And that's why I find my headline so giga slim that I'd love to sell it to Unilever. For Linea. Instead of the stingy WerbeWoche. For a hundred francs.
[email protected]
Martin Lanz is a freelance copywriter and
Head of the Creative Academy Zurich.
Language Observer

You or you (I): You can say you to me
In the beginning, everyone was addressed by grunt. It was only in the course of history that social differences were also reflected in the form of address. It is said to have been Caesar who taught people politeness. After his victory over Pompey, he wanted to be addressed by Her: in the plural. The reason was obvious. He united the power, which had previously been distributed among several, to himself alone.
The earliest German record of Ihrzen dates from 865, when Otfried von Weissenburg addressed Bishop Solomon of Constance with this so-called pluralis reverentiae. The polite form subsequently became so clearly established that the linguist Johann Christoph Adelung wrote around 1800: "Du is only still used 1. against God, 2. in poetry, 3. in the language of close confidentiality, and 4. in the tone of lofty dominion and deep contempt."
Even "yours" was soon no longer distinguished enough. It was increasingly replaced by Sie. In 1799, a German in Graubünden was offended by the fact that "the strangers of nobility are received with great hospitality, but they have to put up with being addressed as she. This also happened to Emperor Alexander of Russia on a visit to the Rhine Falls in 1814, to whom the skipper, as he tried to stand up in the swaying barge, called out: "Hocked abe, Majeschtät!"
As late as 1830, children addressed their parents as Sie. In the second half of the 19th century, unions adopted the Du as an expression of fraternity. Beginning in 1968, it spread like wildfire from student-troubled universities and established itself as the standard in private interactions. It tore down barriers between people - and erected new ones: Anyone who was on a first-name basis was now considered an outsider. Whereas the "you" had previously been regarded as a polite way of showing respect, it now marked social distance: You - that was the class enemy, while the "you" stood for solidarity and cohesion.
Some companies took advantage of this and anchored the "you" bindingly in their corporate language. Not all employees agreed: Just recently, a department head went to court because he didn't want to be forcibly ducked after his company was taken over by an "unconventional company headquartered in Sweden" (court transcript). However, the court found that the use of the first name did "not constitute a humiliation or degradation of the person" because "all employees including the bosses" were on first name terms. (Handelsblatt, July 29, 1998)
The situation is different on public transport: In Germany, anyone who uses profanity toward a policeman can expect a fine of up to 1,200 marks. In Switzerland, this is not seen so closely. Police spokesman Bruno Kistler: "People who go on patrol in District 4 are almost always called by their first name. You can't take that personally." After all, sixty percent of all TV commercials on Swiss television now use the first person form.
Beat Gloor, www.textcontrol.ch