Baseline
The initiatives for drinking water and ban of pesticides, which were put to a vote on June 13. 2021, would have had a strong impact on wide sections of the Swiss economy.
Due to professional campaigning by the proponents and extremely critical media coverage of pesticides and quality of drinking water, the initiatives enjoyed high approval rates among the Swiss population in the run-up to the vote.
Solution
To show that the negative consequences reach far beyond agriculture, vegetable, fruit and ornamental plant producers decided to launch a joint NO campaign with food processors, consumer and business representatives.
The national campaign, conceived and coordinated by Farner, focused on the consequences for the availability of regional food, the impact on downstream industries, and enabled the associations to mobilize their members and distribute campaign material nationwide through their network, using various off- and online measures (posters, ads, testimonials, online ads, SEA, social content).
Outcome
The drinking water initiative and the pesticide ban initiative were both clearly rejected with a NO vote of 60 percent. The majority of the states was also very clear – with the exception of the canton of Basel-Stadt, all states rejected the proposals.
The high voter turnout of almost 60 percent shows that the mobilization of the own networks and the voting population for a double NO was very successful.
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