When an organisation meant to defend the economy slides into fear-mongering, it's no longer a debate – it's an attempt at influence. With dark visuals, simplistic slogans, and doomsday scenarios, the FER abandons reasoned argument for manipulation. Behind these shocking images lies a clear strategy: to bypass critical thinking and steer public opinion. But by treating citizens as an audience to be convinced rather than respected, the federation is jeopardising its own credibility.
The Federation of Romande Businesses (FER) is no longer engaging in economic representation. It's engaging in propaganda. And not the most subtle kind: a crude, anxiety-inducing, almost caricatural staging that reduces a complex democratic debate to primal fears carefully put on display.
Brandishing images of «soulless neighbourhoods» and conjuring the spectre of a «Switzerland without children» is not an argument. This is a psychological manipulation technique worthy of the worst marketing recipes: create anxiety, simplify to the extreme, then direct the reaction. We are no longer in analysis, but in sales. Like laundry detergent salesmen promising a cleaner world with hollow slogans and shocking imagery.
What is worrying is not just the message. It is the contempt he reveals for the intelligence of the citizens. To believe that a people accustomed to direct democracy can be guided by such obvious strings smacks of arrogance.
By trying to influence at all costs, the FER damages what it claims to defend. It discredits economic discourse, weakens public debate and exposes the companies it represents to a legitimate backlash. Many of them deserve better than dystopian, unsubtle, unrigorous, unscrupulous communication.
An organisation that is supposed to embody the seriousness and responsibility of the Romand economic fabric is here transforming into a slogan-generating machine. And this, yes, is a real disgrace for Genevan businesses finding themselves associated with this spectacle.