KS/CS Communication Switzerland concerned and angry about "Genève zéro pub" initiative
In Geneva, the municipal initiative «Genève zéro pub» has been launched. It calls for a ban on commercial advertising on public property. KS/CS Kommunikation Schweiz categorically rejects the initiative.
The municipal initiative "Genève zéro pub", which has come about with the required 4,000 signatures, wants to ban commercial advertising on public property in the city of Geneva. This is in direct opposition to the constitutionally guaranteed economic and advertising freedom, writes KS/CS in a press release.
All other arguments put forward by the initiators are "flimsy". The mobility of disabled people in particular is to be improved, although the only posters that sometimes block the sidewalks advertise cultural, sporting or social events - and are therefore not affected by the initiative, the association criticizes.
Another argument is aimed at increasing urban quality. KS/CS refers here to an APG study in which 81 percent of respondents described billboard advertising as likeable or very likeable. Moreover, only ten percent of poster sites are affected by the initiative - the desired effect would be ineffective, Kommunikation Schweiz is convinced.
In its statement, KS/CS Communication Switzerland rejects "the fact that commercial communication is repeatedly used as a scapegoat for social and political issues that can only be resolved in an open discourse without blinkers." It is particularly annoying that the initiators of new advertising bans often ignore the financial implications. In the case of "Genève zéro pub", this is a loss of revenue for the city of Geneva, but also for the poster companies affected, such as the companies that can only advertise their products and services to a limited extent. KS/CS, the Swiss umbrella organization for commercial communication, therefore firmly rejects the initiative.
