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The Week in Germany: Business, Technology and the Environment July 20, 2007 Geiz is no Longer Geil in Germany’s Economic Upswing In 2001, the Saturn company coaxed reluctant shoppers into its stores with the slogan “Geiz ist Geil”, which means, approximately “stinginess is cool”. As the economy lagged in the aftermath of the dot.com bubble, the electronics retailer focused on luring shoppers with great deals rather than expensive luxury products. Germans took the slogan to heart, and it became something of an axiom of German life that popped up everywhere from daily conversations and political debate. Today, however, the economic mood in Germany is more upbeat. A survey by the Nuremberg-based GfK market research organization showed the overall consumer climate index had grown from a revised 7.4 in June to 8.4 in July. The strong trend in consumer spending gave Saturn chief Roland Weise cause to consider taking a new approach. He recently dropped the ad agency Jung von Matt, which designed the thrift-based campaign and hired Scholz & Friends of Berlin to come up with a new slogan. “With ‘Geiz ist geil,’ we have reached the point where we could think about something else,” Weise told the Handelsblatt newspaper. As the zeitgeist moves from thrift to ruddy-cheeked optimism, the Hamburg advertising mavens Holger Jung and Jean-Remy von Matt have given a final salute to their creation by referencing it themselves in a new ad for the car rental firm Sixt. The ad shows the successful ad-men looking destitute and disheveled,
a far cry from their typically suave appearance as the poster boys of
a new crop of successful young German marketing firms. The text explains
that Sixt lowered prices by cutting their advertising budget. |
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