You are Germany

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"You are Germany" was a controversial discussed social marketing - campaign based on positive thinking and a new German nationalism took aim. It was launched by 25 media companies as part of the Partner for Innovation initiative and coordinated by Bertelsmann .

General data

The campaign was initiated by Gunter Thielen , former CEO of Bertelsmann AG . The first part of the campaign ran from September 26, 2005 to January 31, 2006. The focus of the campaign was a 2-minute TV spot that was broadcast almost simultaneously on almost all major TV channels at the start of the campaign. In addition, large-format advertisements in print media, leaflets, posters and television and cinema commercials lasting up to two minutes were used. According to the press brochure, it was "the largest social marketing campaign in the media history of the Federal Republic of Germany ". The advertising volume is officially put at 30 million euros. But since all the companies and actors involved waived their fees, this sum was not spent, but is only an addition of the costs incurred for a campaign of this size.

The background music for the campaign comes from the American film composer Alan Silvestri and is originally the theme song for the score for Forrest Gump , which was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 .

The pictogram created for the campaign consists of three areas, the colors of which contain the German national colors. There is a stylistic similarity to the logo of the Olympic Games in Barcelona (1992), which, like the campaign logo , is intended to represent a person walking ahead.

content

The declared aim of the campaign was to “spark a movement for more confidence and initiative in Germany” and to encourage German citizens to “more self-confidence and motivation”.

At the core of the campaign was a so-called manifesto , which was also at the center of the commercial. The spots, which were up to two minutes long, showed mostly prominent people in historical, scenic and urban locations. These carried the slogan of the You are Germany campaign in different variations: “You are the miracle of Germany”, “You are the tree”, as well as sayings and metaphors or comparisons such as “Your will is like fire under your bum” to trigger positive feelings and to spontaneously inspire and carry the viewer away.

Excerpts from the manifest:

“ A butterfly can trigger a typhoon . The gust of wind that is displaced by the flapping of its wings uproots trees a few kilometers away. Just as a breath of air turns into a storm, so can your deed work. [...] Your will is like fire under your bum. [...] But once we pulled down a wall. Germany has enough hands to reach out to each other and grab them. We are 82 million. Let's get our hands dirty. You are the hand You are 82 million. Treat your country like a good friend. Don't complain about him [...] You are Germany. "

resonance

A representative survey commissioned by the initiators from the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) showed that two weeks after the start of the campaign, 35% of those questioned had consciously noticed the campaign by then. Of these, 54% saw themselves as "positively addressed". 23% of the respondents did not like the campaign.

The organizers also spoke of "around 400 companies, associations and organizations" that wanted to take part in the action; The support from media groups (see list below) by means of free advertising space and the participation of celebrities, which are also free of charge, also showed the support of the campaign by companies and celebrities.

On the campaign homepage, there was the possibility of uploading a photo of yourself, together with your name and your own little message, to a gallery of the supporters. Several thousand people took advantage of this interactive offer.

Media presence

According to an estimate in the run-up to the campaign, 1.6 billion media contacts should be achieved with citizens. This corresponds to a calculated range of 98 percent. Every German should be reached an average of 16 times. The media volume (as of September 23, 2005) consisted of:

Magazines Newspapers TV movie theater poster
Number of
copies in brackets 		40 tracks (26,072,300) 8 national titles (2,195,600)
13 regional titles (2,854,800) 		11 channels 1,866 cinemas
in 343 locations 		2,326 mega-lights (18/1)
in 80 locations
Contacts
in million people 		625.5 82.8 761.3 32.4 84.8
Switching volume
in euros 		11,267,051 5,378,799 12,500,000 984.998 999.994

Campaign carrier

watch TV
ARD • Premiere • ProSiebenSat.1 • RTL Group Germany • ZDF
Print
Axel Springer • Bauer Publishing Group • Hubert Burda Media • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung • Ganske Publishing Group • Gruner + Jahr • Heise Media Group • Publishing Group Georg von Holtzbrinck • Newspaper Group Ippen • Publishing Company Madsack • Motor Presse Stuttgart • Der Spiegel • Süddeutscher Verlag • WAZ Media Group • Stuttgart newspaper group
On-line
RTL Interactive • Tomorrow Focus • T-Online
poster
Ströer Out-of-Home Media
movie theater
WerbeWeischer

The advertising agency kempertrautmann , founded by André Kemper and Michael Trautmann , was responsible for the campaign strategy and the advertising agency Jung von Matt was responsible for the creative conception . The “campaign office” is headed by the fischerAppelt agency in Hamburg .

Prominent supporters of the campaign

(Selection): Gerald Asamoah • Reinhold Beckmann • Bobby Brederlow • Yvonne Catterfeld • Sarah Connor • Wojtek Czyz • Justus Frantz and orchestra • Maria Furtwängler • Martin Hyun • Günther Jauch • Oliver Kahn • Walter Kempowski • Johannes B. Kerner • Oliver Korittke • Walter Lange • Florian Langenscheidt • Patrick Lindner • Sandra Maischberger • Xavier Naidoo • Minh-Khai Phan-Thi • Oliver Pocher • Dominic Raacke • Marcel Reich-Ranicki • Hans-Martin Rüter • Kool Savas • Harald Schmidt • Gabriele Strehle • Gerd Strehle • Ulrich Wickert • Anne Will • Martin Winterkorn • Katarina Witt

criticism

Persiflage of the campaign logo

Columnists from various newspapers complained that the slogan “You are Germany” was lacking in content as a pure “good mood campaign”. The taz spoke of the fact that with a “ neoliberal surprise bag” the “Germans, shaken by depression and fear of the future, would be brought back into a good mood”, while the responsibility of the state and economy for the “fate of the country” would be shifted to the individual.

Some authors saw parallels in the campaign with the ideology of the national community . For example, Harald Jähner spoke in the Berliner Zeitung of a “ people's body rhetoric ” that the campaign uses. Further criticism concerned Ferdinand Porsche , who was highlighted as a role model in the campaign and was one of those industrialists who exploited concentration camp inmates as forced laborers. Some of these critics saw themselves confirmed when it was found out that the National Socialists used the slogan "Because you are Germany" - albeit aimed at Adolf Hitler - during a rally in 1935 on Ludwigsplatz in Ludwigshafen am Rhein . The historians Hans Mommsen and Hans-Ulrich Wehler did not consider the campaign to be encumbered because of this "coincidental coincidence" (Mommsen).

The 2009 web video You Are Terrorist , which addresses domestic security laws, made reference to the campaign, which sparked disputes between the agency and the video artist.

A continuation of the campaign with the focus on a “child-friendly Germany” was decided in July 2007.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Hacke: And what do I do now? In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 2, 2005.
  2. ↑ Official press kit of the campaign ( Memento of December 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Offensive for Germany . In: taz , September 26, 2005.
  4. ↑ clay, stones, bertelsmann . In: taz , September 29, 2005.
  5. ↑ Mach hinne, Germany . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 30, 2005.
  6. ↑ You are Germany. Considerations about a campaign and its role models. Association of Workers' Photography, November 29, 2005.
  7. ↑ Dark past: Porsche employed more slave labor than known . Spiegel Online ; presumed 300. Accessed August 20, 2013.