marketing for dummies

My Marketing Friend Manager AW will forgive me for this post and may wish to correct the incorrectness or imprecisions in a comment below…

Anyway, recently i came across some weird banners, almost schocking I would say and i’ll bring here my thoughts to you.

First of all, is time for elections in CH again and as said, the station is covered by political banners promising to take care of us porr immigrant, in particular while the SVP just want to kick us out all immediately, the Liberal party has adopted a softer approach, at least at the Zurich main station, maybe because finally someone remembered that all the immigrants getting off the train bring also a lot of money to this country…

Well fo whatever reason they just state: EINWANDERUNG, HART ABER FAIR that is Immigrazione, dura ma equa, (Immigration, hard but fair). I was thinkingalso on how to translate the different shades of fair into italian… because to me it sounds all like a joke a bit, but this is another story.

To get where I want to take you we need to do another step and take the banner of Mr Caviezel Tarzisius:

pic from http://www.fdp-davos.ch/

Now, I saw the banner at first in the italian version (no idea why it was in italian in the ZHR station in fact, but it lastd only coule of days before it disappeared underneath a softer and more generalistic LPD banner) and it was saying something like : “stupisce per la sua competenza”. With a picture like this where clearly they want you to look at the poor ibex hanging on the wall, I am wondering if he is an expert in hunting steinbocks or what, if it was for me to vote in this country i would think that if he is competent he should sit behind a desk tidy but full of paper that he is studying to improve my country, not showing off in front of a dead animal! And obviously why did the party think that the deer was an essential message for this political campaign… Feel free to let me know…

Let’s go on to the second banner: the movie “Friends with benefits”. Well, if the movie wasn’t already explicit enough, they thought well of doing it very clear on the commercial:

So as you can see in this sequence, Justin is just miming his sexual appendix while approaching a very happy Mila representing the most famous “hole” of the human history. Do we really want to believe that she is saying: “yes, a male friend is fun” and he is replying: “you got it babe, you are the nicest…” Puahhhhhh Apparently there is also a censored version of the banner which i just discovered in internet. In this second version Justin is still perplex and clearly this time he does not really knoe where to point his hand so he touches his hair (a clear symbol of sexual seduction anyway) while Mila takes the hand close to her lips… But it seems like CH must be tollerant since on every newspaper and corner of the city the 2 actors have no shame of sort.

All this dumb marketing is rising a lot of questions in my head. Are we so lacking of creativity nowadays? I invite you to look around you, open the newspaper today and try to watch with a critical eye to a random picture or commercial… you might find it hilarious and outrageous like me if you just reflect. (and not because i am a bigot but because is so stupid!)

you are welcome!

Since about one week there is a new poster serie of SVP invading every corner, tram stop and advertising space of Switzerland. SVP comes back with its easy rethoric. A pre-packed way of thinking suitable for those who don’t want to think with their own heads and don’t want to get trapped into the complexity of nowadays society. SVP offers ideas brought at their extreme consequences, it’s all either black or white -actually for them is always black since balck is the color of everything representing the foreign, the immigrant, the strange.

It’s just represents in full the greek idea of demagogy: striving the people with rethoric speeches with the execuse of making their own good, while finding a scapegoat to all swiss troubles. (at least the few they have in comparison to the rest of collapsying Europe!)

All this it means it’s time soon for a new vote, a new referendum for the Swiss to decide on how to kick everybody out asap.

The funny or curious thing is that I noticed this poster firstly in the train station, while you just get off your train you face the hostility of this political party, at the same time if you turn your head at the other side you see another poster by Switzerland Tourism this time: picturing a great view of the Zurich lake with the profile of the Grossmuenster and a motto at the bottom: “great to see you!” Apparently we are welcome only for a short time, just the time to get poor in this country for a short visit, especially now with the exchange rate almost 1 to 1. You might think i make a fortune by living here…

If you think that here problems don’t exist, all is perfect and is a paradise on earth, just remember that is one of the right oriented country I know, and this means, when things get worst we will see them taking actions. I say this after a debate with a british friend after the riot distructions of the past days: if the UK has problems to face on re-educate its new generations and repair to the damages of a too generous welfare, is not alone, all EU countries have big troubles ahead, CHmight come soon to a time of political rigid right measures…

me: a rat in switzerland!

I am offended and disgusted by the outrageous political and marketing campaign promoted by the UDC political party of Ticino region. Me: the perfect example of how well north and deep south of italy can meet, proud daughter of a sicilian emigrated to the north, a terrona, so to say. And now that I emigrated to Switzerland I become a rat. It is so true that migrations are just a matter of perspective, time and place. We all end up like immigrants somewhere sooner or later. And we Italias, should know that well, but instead we treat still nowadays albanians, maroccans, algerians, romanians africans and even our own very connational from below Rome like rats in our houses. I have been hating all my life the world terrone but i somehow got used to it. I will face as well to be called a rat. What really hurts me though is that italians have been accepted when our labour force was cheap and conveninet to build the Gotthard tunnel and whatsoother mervellous swiss things… just 100 years ago. We were useful, but not welcome for sure! This campaign nowadays starts from the polemic regarding the 45 thousands italian workers who everymorning cross the border and go to work in ticino. They apparently steel jobs. And then what about the swiss companies that employ them because they are cheaper?! We are rats in Switzerland eating the precious gruyer. Moreover this is offensive to me that I am such a great fan of Ticino. I mean, for an Italian in Switzerland Ticino is like home, is like a safe place where to go speak our own language and find familiar atmoshpeare, food and manners. Is a place for nostalgic and homesick looking for the sun. I am really disappointed that there are people who thinks like that exactly in Ticino.

shame at balairatt.ch

The campaign is named bala i ratt: that is to say the dancing rats. In italian in fact we have a famous proverb which goes like: if the cat is absent, the rats dance. Obviously if the rats are partying hard is just because the cat is too distracted by his own giant selfesteem. The 3 rats (you can find them even on facebook, but i dislike you if you want to become friend of them!) are in order: Fabrizio the tiler worker from verbania, Bogdan the romanian criminal and finally, Giulio, the lawyer carrying a shield with 3 mounts on it (an undoubtable reference to our minister of finance Giulio Tremonti and to his smart law which protects the italian accounts in switzerland). This racist campaign apparently has been sponsored by 20 private investors and organized by the UDC, while in first place the party who ws held responsible was the Lega ticinese. The effect of this is so strong that made even our own Italian-Padanian Lega go mad! Someone, finally showing some wisdom, said: obviously there is always someone located more north than we are… Like saying there is no geographic limit to racism and intollerance. We should better remember this, when we talk about our internal problems and when we are so good in blaming the immigrants in our country for all our problems. And by the way, I do like swiss cheese.