For a long time, comparative advertising was in principle forbidden in Germany. The Federal Court of Justice gave up this line in 1998, after a European directive of 1997. Today the law allows an ad to name a competitor, under conditions. The comparison must relate objectively to essential, relevant, verifiable and typical features, or to the price. It is unfair if it herabsetzt oder verunglimpft, disparages or denigrates, the competitor’s goods, activities or circumstances. In 2009 the court judged a TV spot for the newspaper taz. In it, a man at a kiosk asks for a paper, and the owner hands him a BILD from under the counter. The spot ends: taz ist nicht für jeden. Das ist OK so. The taz is not for everyone. That’s OK. The court allowed it. Humor is disparagement only if it exposes the competitor to mockery or ridicule, or if viewers take it literally as a put-down.
advertising
Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist
Germans know the sentence that ends most television commercials for medicines. Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker. “For risks and side effects, read the package insert and ask your doctor or pharmacist.” The law on advertising for medicines requires it. The advertisement does not list the risks. It tells the viewer where to go and get the information. Since December 2023, the required wording has been gender-neutral: fragen Sie Ihre Ärztin, Ihren Arzt oder in Ihrer Apotheke.
Spiegel Readers Know More
For more than forty years, the news magazine Der Spiegel advertised itself with one sentence: Spiegel-Leser wissen mehr. “Spiegel readers know more.” In January 2015 the magazine replaced it with Keine Angst vor der Wahrheit, no fear of the truth.
Spiegel Readers Know More
For more than forty years, the news magazine Der Spiegel advertised itself with one sentence: Spiegel-Leser wissen mehr. “Spiegel readers know more.” In January 2015 the magazine replaced it with Keine Angst vor der Wahrheit, no fear of the truth.
Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist
Germans know the sentence that ends most television commercials for medicines. Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker. “For risks and side effects, read the package insert and ask your doctor or pharmacist.” The law on advertising for medicines requires it. The advertisement does not list the risks. It tells the viewer where to go and get the information. Since December 2023, the required wording has been gender-neutral: fragen Sie Ihre Ärztin, Ihren Arzt oder in Ihrer Apotheke.
Companies Switch to Du
In September 2002 IKEA launched its advertising campaign Wohnst du noch oder lebst du schon? Are you still just living somewhere, or are you really living? In 2016 the Schwarz Group, which runs the Lidl and Kaufland chains, ended the formal Sie. In the same year the head of the Otto Group, Hans-Otto Schrader, offered the du to some 53,000 employees, as a verbal starting signal for a culture-change project. Wer die Vorstände duzen will, der kann das tun. Whoever wants to say du to the board members can do so. Since 2020, Aldi Süd has addressed its customers with du. At the HypoVereinsbank in Munich, the du is optional. Employees who welcome it add #gernperDu to their e-mail signature.
Dr. Oetker
August Oetker trained as a pharmacist and earned a doctorate in botany at the University of Freiburg in 1888. In 1891 he bought a pharmacy in Bielefeld. He sold a baking powder under the name Backin, with a Gelinggarantie, a guarantee that every cake would succeed. From 1899 he used the trademark Dr. Oetker. The brand still carries his title.
Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist
Almost every German who has watched television knows the sentence that ends a drug advertisement: Zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage und fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker. For risks and side effects, read the package leaflet and ask your doctor or pharmacist. The sentence is required by the law on advertising for medicines. The advertisement must send the viewer to the responsible professional. Since 27 December 2023, the required wording has been fragen Sie Ihre Ärztin, Ihren Arzt oder in Ihrer Apotheke, ask your doctor, female or male, or in your pharmacy.
Inform, Do Not Praise
German law sets the terms on which lawyers and doctors may advertise. A lawyer may advertise only soweit sie über die berufliche Tätigkeit in Form und Inhalt sachlich unterrichtet, as far as the advertising informs about the professional work in a factual way, in form and content. It may not aim at obtaining a particular mandate. The model professional code for doctors uses the same word. Doctors may give sachliche berufsbezogene Informationen, factual information about their work. Advertising that breaks professional rules is forbidden. The model code names three kinds in particular: advertising that praises, advertising that misleads, and advertising that compares.
Facts, Facts, Facts
Fakten, Fakten, Fakten und immer an die Leser denken. Facts, facts, facts, and always think of the readers. It was the advertising line of the news magazine Focus, which Helmut Markwort ran as editor-in-chief from 1993. The line became a common saying. In February 2008, Focus retired it.