Keen on gossip from Rapperswil?

It's a fact that Princess Stéphanie is not only into Franco Knie's elephant act, but that what goes on behind the closed caravan door also offers enough reason for wild speculation. Recently, the love life of the controversial couple has also served as a source of inspiration for creative people. Especially the team of the Zurich crossover agency Angelink flirted with the ambiguous circus romance of the Monegasque princess: For the launch, their subject advertises with a not by chance blurred caravan for Blick Online. The claim "Stéphanie, pregnant already?" rules out any confusion. VBZ extends cooperation with 20 Minuten. The commuter newspaper 20 Minuten will continue to be available in the streetcars and buses of Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ). The VBZ have decided to extend the contract until the end of 2004 and thus against the offer of competitor Metropol. According to VBZ Director Thomas Portmann, 20 Minuten made a financially more attractive offer. The third Zurich commuter newspaper, ZürichExpress, had not submitted an offer. However, discussions had been held with it, Portmann said. Of the 150000 copies of 20 Minuten, around 30000 are distributed in the VBZ vehicles.
LOVELY RITA, meter maid. With stickers against too high fines! That's it! The eponymous Markus and the other Markus have once again remained true to their reputation. After their recent advertising stunt for Sportplausch Wider with a free cell phone in the shape of a dishwashing liquid, the two creatives are now surprising us with a rather quirky series of stickers. "I love city police" or "I love Rita Fuhrer" are supposed to be stuck to the new bike from Sportplausch, so that the police will turn a blind eye when a fine is threatening once again. The "official police appeasement stickers" are available in four versions. They are supposed to "work wonders," they promise.
KNORR GOES TO FILM. Wolfram Knorr, the longtime film critic and, at the end, surprisingly abruptly deposed cultural editor of Weltwoche since 1974, will become the new editor-in-chief of Film magazine in August. Knorr, who with his competent writing is one of the stars of the cinéphile, is to help the German and French cinema magazine to an editorial relaunch.
Did Schawinski let himself get ripped off by Tamedia? Since January, Tamedia, owner of TV 3, had been negotiating with Roger Schawinski to take over his Belcom Group (Tele 24, Tele Züri and Radio 24). After an initial Tamedia offer, which the pioneer apparently considered trustworthy, Schawinski disclosed books and budget plans. After that, Tamedia called it off. CFO Patrick Eberle justified this to WerbeWoche with a lack of synergies between Tele 24/Tele Züri and TV 3. On the other hand, Tamedia was still interested in Radio 24, if it was ever sold. Rumors that Tamedia's Board of Directors had decided to sell Radio 24 because of Tele 24's relatively meager figures and because of the imminent departures of two of its own Board members (CEO Michel M. Favre and TV 3 head Kurt
W. Zimmermann) got cold feet, Eberle described as an "absolute Märli".
WIN IS PERVERSE. The Forum for Photography in Hedingen is showing an exhibition of text posters by Jean-Marc Seiler from May 11 to June 10. In his latest affiches, the Zurich author and designer amazes with a short form of texts that can hardly be undercut and, in part, sharp diagnoses against the unreflected acceptance of existing power structures. "Siegen ist pervers" is therefore the title of the exhibition. A catalog has been published in an edition of 129 copies.
Record year for Publisuisse. Publisuisse, which markets SRG programs, generated net revenues of CHF 321.4 million last year, 4.5 percent more than in 1999. It was able to transfer a total of CHF 304.4 million to SRG, 11.4 percent more than in the previous year. Publisuisse made gains in pre- and post-primetime.

FABulous Lovely. At the International Food And Beverage Creative Excellence Awards (FAB Awards) in London, AY&R won the "FABulous Award" for print ads. The jury liked the dairy cow Lovely in a sleeping bag (motif: "Open Air Festivals, client: Swiss Milk Producers). Other finalists were Guye & Partner (Skyy, Crodino) and JWT&H&F (Heineken).
Editorial

An uninhibited
View into the laboratory
Politics also has to do with selling. This is shown by the latest figures from Great Britain: In February, Tony Blair's Labor government spent more money on advertising than the advertising giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever. According to ACNielsen, the British government spent no less than 16.4 million pounds on its own advertising. Unilever invested 12.2 and competitor Procter & Gamble 10.1 million pounds in advertising in the comparable month. With this strong presence in terms of political advertising, the British are completely out of the ordinary. And there is another way in which the Kingdom ticks differently: While the PR of many Swiss universities is dull, British scientific associations founded a "Public Understanding of Science" committee as early as the 1980s. This committee works to gain the necessary public acceptance for progress in science and technology. In Switzerland, it was not until the genetic protection initiative that scientists came out of their shell. The initiative triggered a salutary shock among researchers in 1998. In the aftermath, the Science et Cité Foundation was set up with the aim of initiating a dialogue between science and society. From May 4 to 11, it is organizing a research festival of unprecedented proportions: in public squares, museums, train stations and theaters in ten Swiss university towns, scientists will present their research projects.
It is quite possible that the uninhibited laboratory show would have stolen the show from the Expo if it had been held as planned in 2001. And the advertising presence of Science et Cité (see page 14) is also impressive. Samuel Helbling