FDP-Frauen, Swiss Women's Liberal Party, Starts Topless Campaign To Promote Women In Government
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A new trend has the nation's legislators baring it all to focus public attention on their -- causes.
The FDP-Frauen, the Swiss women's liberal party, has gotten its national election campaign off to a high profile start with a revealing image of its 30-something general secretary, Claudine Esseiva. In the photo the party head appears topless -- albeit shielded by a modesty-preserving slogan that reads ''No More Toplessness.''
The reference is to one of the party's major campaign platforms: more women in the higher echelons of both the private and public sectors.
Swiss women, in person-on-the-street interviews, found the ad "not immediately obvious - you had to think about it" or "more about sex than supporting the cause of women,'' although a male student said he thought it got its intended message across.
Zurich-based communications consultant Klaus J. Stöhlker disagrees. Stöhlker called the slogan ''too intellectual, convoluted,'' and said the message lacks substance. It was not, however, completely surprising, according to the consultant.
"In Switzerland today, erotic capital is being used with a lot more awareness than it was 20 years ago," he said. "Society is getting more and more sexualized, with middle-class values disappearing largely because of tough economic and political competition. People want to get noticed."
Young male politicians for both the Green and conservative SVP parties have also experimented with this kind of "bare it all" approach -- Xavier Schwitzguébel of the SVP quite dramatically so, his privates shielded only by an assault rifle, to mark his stance against a weapons initiative.
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Read the original story in German here.
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First Posted: 07/11/11 06:00 PM ET Updated: 09/10/11 06:12 AM ET