Election advertising: Unusual support in Zurich
by Christian Beck
Election posters and flyers often do not shine with creative excellence. Not even that of the Zurich municipal council candidate Stefan Mühlemann, vice president of the Green Liberal Party in the city of Zurich. But his likeness soon made it big.
“Help! In district 6, choose our friend Stefan. We can not. Because we don’t live in ZH,” says a poster that will be displayed in an APG poster post from January 31, and a second one a week later. The two friends are shown as black and white images – without mentioning their names. persoenlich.com knows: These are the busy St. Moritz mayor Christian Jott Jenny and Pascal Scherrer, head of the regional TV station at CH Media.
“Since Corona, many have spoken and written about community spirit, togetherness, humanity and solidarity,” Scherrer told persoenlich.com. «What is more human than our idea, which celebrates a decade-long friendship with Stefan Mühlemann in the subtext?» Scherrer and Jenny finance the two poster sites out of their own pockets. They shell out CHF 1,100 for printing and posting.
“An exciting personality”
And why can’t the names of Scherrer and Jenny be read on the two posters? “Because we don’t want to push ourselves into the foreground,” was the answer. It’s all about her boyfriend, who is an exciting personality who doesn’t fit into pigeonholes. «A former high earner who is committed to political ideas that are – financially – disadvantageous to him. A citizen who is unreservedly and with the greatest commitment involved in the political establishment; where it is often said that the zeitgeist is characterized by pitiless utilitarianism,” says Scherrer.
Mühlemann is no stranger to the city of Zurich. In 2016 he made a name for himself with the popular initiative “7 instead of 9 city councillors”. At that time he launched this as a non-party citizen.
Pascal Scherrer does not see a conflict of interest with his job at CH Media, especially since he has no influence on the program in his function. “I’m independent. I am not recommending any candidate or any party, but my intended and dearest buddy, who I have known for 30 years, »said Scherrer on request.
Or in other words: This poster campaign shows how far a good friendship can go.