Du bist Deutschland was a social marketing

Social marketing

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as...

 campaign in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Its aim was to achieve positive thinking and a new national feeling. It was created by the initiative "Partner für Innovation" consisting of 25 media corporations and was co-ordinated by Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...

. The large-scale campaign caused a lot of controversy and discussion.

Overview

The initiator of the campaign was Gunther Thielen, CEO of Bertelsmann AG. It ran from September 26, 2005 to January 31, 2006. The core of the campaign was a 2 minute TV spot, which was broadcast simultaneously at the start of the campaign on almost all TV channels in the country. Additional advertisements in the print media, flyers, and outdoor and online media were used. The media cost was around 30 million Euros. All of the supporting corporations received no income for their contributions. The campaign was relaunched on December 15, 2007.

The background music used is from the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri

Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...

 and was the theme from the film Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...

(1994).

Logo

The pictogram which was designed for the campaign consisted of three faces in the colours of the German national flag. It is similar to the logo of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona

1992 Summer Olympics

The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...

, as it resembles a walking person.

First campaign

A similar slogan was first used in 1933 in Nazi Germany
The goal of the campaign was to spur an increase of more confidence and people’s own initiative, and therefore result in more self-confidence and motivation for every German citizen.

A slogan was core of the campaign, which was the focus of the TV-spots. This showed the slogan “You are Germany” (Du bist Deutschland) in several variations. It was meant to invoke positive feelings and inspire the viewer.

Second campaign

In 2007 the campaign appeals for more child friendliness in the German society because of the steadily falling birth rate in Germany. In the manifesto this becomes clear especially by the last verses: “Wir brauchen mehr von deiner Sorte, weil ohne dich die Gegenwart keinen Spaß bringt und die Zukunft bereits vergangen ist. Du bist Deutschland.” (We need more of your kind because without you the present brings no fun and the future has already passed. You are Germany.)

Evaluation

Surveys conducted by the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) showed that two weeks after the start of the campaign, 54% of those who noticed the campaign consciously (35%) evaluated it positively.

Right from the beginning of the campaign there was a lot of criticism. The major complaint was that the tone of the campaign resembled campaigns from National Socialist

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 times. For many the campaign was too nationalistic.

Television

ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 • Premiere (Pay-TV)

Premiere (pay television network)

Sky Deutschland AG, branded as Sky, is a German media company which operates the first pay television platform in Germany and Austria, offering several channels of digital content via satellite and cable....

 • ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group

ProSiebenSat.1 Media

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is a European media conglomerate, operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses. It was formed on October 2, 2000 by merger of German TV broadcasters ProSieben Media AG and Sat.1 SatellitenFernsehen GmbH...

 • RTL Gruppe Deutschland

RTL Group

RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...

 • ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

Print

Axel Springer

Axel Springer

Axel Springer , was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company.-Early life:...

 • Heinrich Bauer Verlag • Hubert Burda Media • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung • Jahreszeitenverlag • Gruner + Jahr

Gruner + Jahr

Gruner + Jahr GmbH & Co. KG is the largest European printing and publishing firm. Its headquarters is in Hamburg, Germany.-History:Originally founded on August 1, 1948 as the Henri Nannen publishing house, Gruner + Jahr was created in 1965 from a merger by acquisition, by publishers John Jahr Sr....

 • Heise Medien Gruppe • Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck • Zeitungsgruppe Ippen • Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack • Motor Presse Stuttgart • Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...

 • Süddeutscher Verlag • WAZ-Mediengruppe • Zeitungsgruppe Stuttgart

Celebrity Supporters of the Campaign (selection)

Gerald Asamoah

Gerald Asamoah

Gerald Asamoah is a Ghanaian-born German footballer. He last played as a forward for FC St.Pauli, following an 11-year long stay at Schalke.-Club career:...

 • Reinhold Beckmann • Bobby Brederlow • Yvonne Catterfeld

Yvonne Catterfeld

Yvonne Catterfeld is a German singer, actress and TV host.-Biography:Catterfeld was born in Erfurt, Thuringia, then in East Germany, in 1979. At the age of 15 she started playing the piano and the flute, simultaneously taking first dance and vocal lessons...

 • Sarah Connor • Wojtek Czyz

Wojtek Czyz

Wojtek Czyz is a disabled German athlete from Polish part of Silesia.He lost his lower left leg in 2001, when he was an aspiring soccer player. He ran for a loose ball, when the opposing goalkeeper rammed his knee, causing multiple fractures and destroying several major blood vessels...

 • Justus Frantz

Justus Frantz

Justus Frantz is a German pianist, conductor, and television personality.- Life :...

 und Orchester • Maria Furtwängler

Maria Furtwängler

Maria Furtwängler-Burda is a German physician and television actress. She is the daughter of an architect and actress Kathrin Ackermann and at once grandniece and step-granddaughter of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler....

 • Günther Jauch

Günther Jauch

Günther Johannes Jauch is a German television host. He is a member of the Hamburg Jauch family, but currently lives in Potsdam, Brandenburg with his wife Thea Jauch and his four children.- Biography :...

 • Oliver Kahn

Oliver Kahn

Oliver Rolf Kahn is a former German football goalkeeper. He started his career in the Karlsruher SC Junior team. He had his debut game in the professional squad in 1987...

 • Walter Kempowski

Walter Kempowski

Walter Kempowski was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called German Chronicle and the monumental Echolot , a collage of autobiographical reports, letters and other documents by contemporary witnesses of the Second World War.-Childhood :Walter Kempowski was born in...

 • Johannes B. Kerner • Oliver Korittke • Walter Lange • Florian Langenscheidt • Patrick Lindner

Patrick Lindner

Patrick Lindner is a German Volksmusik singer.-Life:Born as Friedrich Günther Raab, Lindner worked as a chef before his breakthrough in 1989 when he was second in the Grand Prix der Volksmusik...

 • Sandra Maischberger

Sandra Maischberger

Sandra Maischberger is a German journalist, talk show host, and author. She is the sister of German archeologist Martin Maischberger....

 • Xavier Naidoo

Xavier Naidoo

Xavier Kurt Naidoo is a German singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actor. Born and raised in Mannheim, Naidoo worked in several jobs in the gastronomy and the musical industry before relocating to the United States in the early 1990s, where he released his first full-length English...

 • Minh-Khai Phan-Thi • Oliver Pocher • Dominic Raacke • Marcel Reich-Ranicki

Marcel Reich-Ranicki

Marcel Reich-Ranicki is a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the literary group Gruppe 47. He is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the field of German literature and therefore was in Germany often called the 'Pope of literature' .-Life:Marcel...

 • Hans Martin Rüter • Kool Savas

Kool Savas

Savas Yurderi also known as Kool Savas , is a German rapper and hip hop artist. Savas is mostly referred to as "King of Rap" or "King of German Rap"."Savaş" is the Turkish word for "war"....

 • Achim Kreisel • Harald Schmidt

Harald Schmidt

Harald Franz Schmidt is a German actor, writer, comedian and television entertainer best known as host of two popular German late-night shows.- Early life :...

 • Gabriele Strehle • Gerd Strehle • Ulrich Wickert

Ulrich Wickert

Ulrich Wickert is a German journalist. He is one of the best known broadcasters in Germany.As a result of his father's employment with NATO, Wickert grew up in Heidelberg and Paris. In the 1960s he studied law and political sciences at the University of Bonn...

 • Anne Will

Anne Will

Anne Will is a television journalist from Germany. She was anchorwoman of the daily Tagesthemen news broadcast on ARD from April 14, 2001, to June 24, 2007.-Biography:...

 • Martin Winterkorn

Martin Winterkorn

Martin Winterkorn is the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, the parent company of the Volkswagen Group, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Audi and Porsche Automobil Holding SE....

 • Katarina Witt

Katarina Witt

Katarina Witt is a German figure skater and model. In Germany she was commonly called "Kati" in the past, but today her full name is used more often....