zureich1 min read

zureich adapted by sunriseits moments like these when i start to feel like the last mohican. everything just gets adapted by big business. and nobody even seems to care.
wohlgrot was a huge squat in the 80’s & 90’s in zürich, switzerland, located right next to train station. one of the defining elements was a big sign saying “zureich”, painted in the same colours as the regular train company signs, which could be seen from the train every time.
[for english speakers: zureich is a clever word play, meaning too rich, and all that had to be done was shift one letter]
i am currently working in zureich [because it is where the money is at…] but uhm, so last wednesday, when i first arrived, i saw above sign from afar, at the same place where the squat used to be located, and i was elated to see it, because i assumed somebody had graffitied it on the wall.
but the next evening, when i took the train home, the train passed close enough to see that actually it was a huge advert for one of the 3 mobile phone companies here in switzerland. their claim: if you use our mobile phone service you’ll save so much money that you’ll be zureich, too rich. duh.
i was as pissed as i was embarassed because i had fully fallen for it…
i was convinced that over the wknd the advert would be … uhm … remixed, taken care of, DESTROYED!!!!1

but not so. it was still there monday.
i really quite hate it when companies adapt “our” symbols in such a way. but i am starting to realise that i am hopelessly out of style with that… ugh.

9 Replies to “zureich1 min read

  1. dude, this sucks. swisscom is a hugh fag, they piss on subculture because they havent been there…Zureich was a “smart” subculture term. everybody will steal our ideas because we are the leaders.
    or what you think player?

  2. yesterday i saw another really perverted advert:
    a big picture of che guevara, the text say: “be realistic, demand the impossible” (in german).
    and you know, what the company (i guess it’s a private bank)is advertising for? a kind of fund or somethng similar.
    so scheisse verdammt pervers, dass es einem übel werden könnte. ohne zu romantisieren und verklären: guevara kämpfte für gleichheit und gerechtigkeit. und mit ihm wird nun geworben für finanzprodukte, die dem grössten teil der welt-, und wahrscheinlich auch schweizerbevölkerung mangels grösserer, frei zu verspekulierender kapitalanhäufung sowieso verwehrt sein dürften.
    nein, also wirklich. werbt doch mit hitler für’s sommerferienlager!

  3. luci, was ist los? Wenn wir alle gleich reich sind, dann ist das doch Gleichheit und Gerechtigkeit; Che wäre glücklich!

    Oder hab ich wieder irgendwas nicht begriffen?

  4. c’mon, why getting upset? as a matter of fact, it’s the very same thing like in the “good” old wohlgroth days, just with an opposite sign. deconstructing idols, idealism and naivety. lack of orientation, raise of pragmatism. eventually build up new idols and new orders. repeat the cycle. over and over again. best companions: irony, sarcasm.

  5. @stillalive: it’s actually not swisscom, but i refuse to name the company here… and yes bro, it sux major!
    @luci: that does sound like a next very sickening step in che comoodification. ugh. blog it, dood.
    @matthias: uhm, no comment
    @dani: what to say? i disagree of course and think that irony and sarcasm are the very cheap way out.

  6. yep, felt exactly the same when I first saw this (how the f* dare they?).
    but at the same time, we are seeing shit like this for years here in züri. it’s the same with almost every subculture. it’s going to be sold out by mainstream sooner or later. maybe that’s the reason kidz didn’t paint it over (it’s still there, no tags whatsoever). kinda sad tho…
    kinda real these days as well…

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