Countdown begins to next year’s national exhibition

Nelly Wenger is hoping for a turnaround in Expo's fortunes Keystone

The management of Switzerland's planned national exhibition, Expo.02, has launched a publicity campaign to drum up support for the event, which opens in exactly one year's time.

Television advertising spots, brochures and a touring information centre are strategies being used to increase public interest in the one-off event, which has been beset by problems since its conception.

Launching the media campaign in Neuchatel, Expo director Nelly Wenger said she hoped the publicity drive would mark a turnaround in the exhibition’s fortunes.

She called on the Swiss people to take part in the exhibition, which she said should leave a greater mark on the public than on the environment. “I want people to say of the national exhibition, ‘I remember that’,” Wenger said.

Forty-second advertising spots will be shown on all Swiss Broadcasting Corporation stations and in 90 cinemas around the country from Tuesday. The theme will be “Now or never” with the exhibition portrayed as the event of a lifetime.

The TV spots will be followed at the end of this month by the launch of Expo.02 mobile, a travelling advertisement for the exhibition. The 20-metre long pavilion is intended to take Expo to the people, giving them a taste of what they can expect when it finally opens its doors to the public next May.

The organisers hope to attract around 4.8 million people to the 159-day exhibition, which will take place around the lakes of Neuchatel, Biel and Murten.

The exhibition, which is scheduled to run until October 20, was originally due to open this year but was put back following financial and organisational problems. Recent polls have shown a drop in public interest in the event, which is being subsidised by the government.

swissinfo with agencies