2023-09-08 13:00:00
Controversy in Austria. To encourage Austrians to use public transport, the Federal Minister of Climate and Mobility, Leonore Gewessler, had an idea that was as unusual as it was controversial. At a music festival in the town of Sankt Pölten, festival-goers were offered a year of free public transport on condition that they… get a tattoo. And not just any tattoo, but an illustration of the “KlimaTicket”, the name of the annual transport ticket in question. The initiative aroused strong reactions, both among citizens and among political opponents of Leonore Gewessler, accused “to use the skin of young people for political purposes”.
The KlimaTicket (climate ticket, editor’s note) is an annual transport ticket launched in October 2021 to encourage Austrians to use public transport. There are already 245,000 people using it among a population of 9 million inhabitants and the ticket allows users to travel throughout the country for 3 euros per day, or a total of 1,095 euros per year.
More than 30 people permanently tattooed
It is Leonore Gewessler, member of the environmentalist party (The Greens) who is at the origin of this project. The day before its launch and despite the reluctance of several federal states in Austria, it had told the media that the KlimaTicket was the “first major success of the promised climate policy” by the government. In the eastern region of this Central European country, which includes the capital Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, the sale of this subscription increased by 16% since January 2023.
A KlimaTicket promotional campaign attracted particular attention. On the occasion of the music festival “Frequency Festival”, which took place in August in the town of Sankt Pölten, capital of Lower Austria, the government decided to offer a free annual ticket to people who agreed to get a tattoo of an illustration of the KlimatTicket.
A stand on which was registered “the action that sinks into your skin” was installed for this purpose on the festival site. Present on the scene was the Austrian Minister of Climate, whose arm was tattooed with the inscription “Gewessler takes the lead” (Gewessler takes charge, editor’s note), personally attended to the tattoo of festival-goers, who showed him the final result before receiving the promised transport cards free of charge.
It was not a first. Similar stands have already been set up during previous summer events. If the member of the Green party sported a temporary tattoo, six festival-goers got permanent tattoos at the Frequency Festival. During the Electric Love Festival which also took place in August, around thirty participants accepted this “deal”. Other motifs linked to climate change and sustainability were also offered free of charge by temporary tattoo salon stands.
A KlimaTicket promotion strategy which sparked indignation among political opponents. Henrieke Brandstötter, a member of the liberal NEOS party, implied that Leonore Gewessler took advantage of “party atmosphere” of the festival to tattoo festival-goers. “I know a thing or two about questionable tattoos, often created spontaneously in a party atmosphere”she wrote, believing that “the climate ticket is above all unworthy”. “Offering people money to tattoo advertisements on their skin reveals an unacceptable view of humanity from a minister”lit-on encore.
I am very familiar with questionable tattoos, often created spontaneously in a party mood. But above all, the climate ticket peckerl is unworthy. Money for advertising under the skin – and that from a minister – reveals an otherworldly view of humanity.
— Henrike Brandstötter ???????????????? (@brand_rede) August 20, 2023
The minister defends herself
A journalist, Florian Klenk, editor-in-chief of the weekly Falter, asked ironically “What will happen next? A free heat pump for anyone who tattoos the name Gewessler on their forehead?”. Media like Standard or Salzburger Nachrichten mentioned an idea “stupid in the long run”, “purely and simply cynical”.
On the web, reactions to the Climate Minister’s video on her Instagram account are just as critical. “Pretty embarrassing to abuse a once-cool party for promotional purposes”, writes a subscriber. Other Austrian Internet users criticize him for not having opted for other promotional actions, such as cycling. “For me, it’s really incomprehensible… How can we encourage young people to put political promotion on their skin for the rest of their lives and this without ANY consequences for the federal minister”writes another citizen.
Mme. Gewessler defended his initiative, stating that the campaign “was carried out with the greatest care”. “Tattoos are only done during the day”during which festival-goers are less likely to be drunk, and “are offered to people over the age of 18”, she justified, connected by The Telegraph. She clarified that “Most of the people who got tattoos already had other tattoos.”
The official KlimaTicket account also reacted to comments disagreeing with its campaign, replying that the people who got the tattoos were “responsible for themselves”. The company that sells the ticket added that the campaign has been well received by festival attendees.
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