In the Autumn of 2007, the head of the Swiss People's Party (UDC), Mr. Christophe Blocher, launched a campaign against the naturalisation of "undesirables" (read: not white/not of western European descent) in Switzerland.
To make his point, a series of billboards were put up with the image here on the right (boooo! and crossing out, courtesy of me) showing the good white sheep kicking the bad black sheep out of Switzerland "for more security".
There was an immense and immediate uproar in Switzerland about this, even with international condemnation about the racist nature of the publicity campaign.
Though it was depressing to see such a fascist item up on public display, in the end it was very heartening to see the large public outcry. Everywhere that the billboards appeared in Geneva they were either totally defaced or they were recomposed to mock the UDC party and Mr. Blocher. An added plus was that the Mayor of Geneva went on the record as saying that these advertisements were so blatantly racist and offensive that anyone apprehended defacing them would not be charged. Go Mr. Mayor!
Another positive of all of this was the creation of the group "Moutons de gardes" or Guardian Sheep (see left). The group calls for open political dialogue in a respectful, non-hateful, non-racist, non-xenophobic fashion. For me it is also a celebration of the diversity that we have here, particularly in cities like Geneva.
The cherry on the cake with the nasty sheep ad campaign was that it was so blatantly racist that it seriously undermined the UDC party and helped create a rupture.
Go sheep!
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