Politicians can stay: advertising posters must disappear from the city of Bern

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In the city of Bern, the advertising posters should be removed – at least those advertising expensive watches, new shoes or discounts on Appenzeller cheese. Last Thursday, the Bern city council decided to ban commercial advertising posters by a razor-thin majority of 30 votes to 29.

Christa Ammann (41) from Alternative Left (AL) helped launch the initiative. The initiators argued that commercial advertising damaged the climate. Advertising leads to consumption and therefore to more energy consumption. In public spaces it is especially important that there is less advertising: “I can install an ad blocker on the internet. “That doesn’t work in public spaces,” says Ammann.

There are approximately 900 billboards in the city of Bern. The city of Bern earns more than 5 million francs annually by granting concessions for advertising space to advertising marketers. A ban would mean the city would lose millions.

Politicians can stay

But the politicians exclude themselves. “The ban is purely commercial advertising,” confirms Christa Ammann. So cultural and political posters would still be allowed.

Will Bern’s politicians soon be the only ones pilloried on the capital’s advertising columns? Ammann doubts that: “The idea is to reduce advertising space in public spaces as a whole. There is no evidence that I know of that there is not enough space for election advertising before the election.”

Geneva says no, Vernier shows the way

Adrian Haas (63), director of the Trade and Industry Association of the Canton of Bern, finds the ban incomprehensible. He described it to the Berner Zeitung as a “real shot in the foot”. He hopes that the ban will be rejected if the city council sends the bill back to the city council.

In the city of Geneva there was a narrow no to an advertising ban last March. Advertising posters encouraging excessive consumption were also a thorn in the side of the initiators from Geneva. But Vernier GE is leading the way: advertising posters have been banned there since the beginning of last year – the population tried to defend themselves with a referendum, but could not find a majority. (zac)

Source:Blick