SVP seeks women’s votes with muscle man

In around two months, Swiss national elections will take place. Studies find that Swiss women are less interested in politics than men, with the adversarial approach of politics keeping them away from the ballot box, Blick newspaper reports.

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP), known for its aggressive campaign style, is advertising with a cinema commercial, similar to a chocolate or tourism ad, to win the favour of women voters.

The place of action is a lakeside bathing area somewhere in Switzerland. Three women are central to the story along with a well-built man who gets admiring glances until the anticlimax when the man lays out his blue EU towel and the women lose interest.   

At the end of the ad, the SVP says it's “time for real values for Switzerland“ and, “Swiss women choose SVP“.

The SVP website says:

"The message is clear: it stands for real values. That means standing up for our Switzerland, only then can one appear successful.“

For Swiss academic and political commentator, Georg Lutz, it is clear that the SVP wants to change its image by addressing a different audience.

“People want to be young and sexy“, said Lutz to Blick, "But with this alone, they will not win the election campaign."

 The professionally produced commercial was first aired in a cinema in Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland. From this week, the campaign will appear nationally in many Swiss cinemas in the three national languages. It is already available on YouTube and other social media sites.

The SVP has previously courted controversy with billboards bemoaning "mass immigration" to Switzerland.