2023-10-05 07:35:31
Opinion souvenirs of Saarland
A bizarre souvenir from the Saar
It’s small – and yet has a lot to offer: When looking for an official souvenir, people in Saarland didn’t want to limit themselves to just one attraction and instead muddled eight of them together. Instead of bringing money into the coffers, the piece of plastic only causes ridicule.
Status: 05.10.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
By Katharina Koppenwallner
The Saar loop, seen here from the Cloef viewpoint, is one of the most famous sights in Saarland
Quelle: Getty Images/Boris Jordan Photography
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This little souvenir from Saarland, also called “Saarvenir”, recently made it into the TV news on the public broadcaster “Tagesschau”. It is the first official souvenir of Saarland, and it is made of plastic. The report was primarily about the lack of understanding that this indefinable and useless structure caused among the population of the small federal state and its tourists.
Words and descriptions such as “heap of bulky waste”, “accident from the 3D printer” or “pouring of lead after drinking alcohol” were also used. The somewhat exorbitant selling price of 20.80 euros for five centimeters of grayish plastic is added to this. If there were something like a negative award ceremony like the tourism industry’s Golden Raspberry, Saarvenir would certainly be way ahead.
It’s no surprise that just 400 copies of the object have been sold since it was presented to the public around four months ago. So far, a loss of more than 200,000 euros is said to have accrued.
Eight attractions in one go: The “Saarvenir” should please everyone
Source: Saarland Tourism Center (TZS)
The Saarland Tourism Center describes the object as the only souvenir in the world that consists of not one, but eight objects. She assumed that the most important sights in Saarland were too beautiful and special and that they therefore didn’t want to choose just one. So Saarvenir was created from the eight best places, activities and culinary delicacies that you can experience in Saarland.
From Lyoner to Saarschleife – everything in one Saarvenir
What is united in the controversial object are: the hearty specialty Lyoner boiled sausage, the ancient Benedictine abbey of St. Mauritius Tholey, the famous Saar loop near Mettlach, the “Active in Nature” point (this refers to hiking trails).
Lyoner boiled sausage is a Saarland specialty
Quelle: picture alliance/Zoonar/Heinz Leitner
There is also the accessible steel monument Saarpolygon in the Berghalde Ensdorf, which commemorates the era of hard coal mining in Saarland, and the Reinheim Horse monument in the European Cultural Park Bliesbruck-Reinheim, which is dedicated to the Celts. Not to forget the Unesco World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte (the only completely preserved ironworks) as well as the mining culture of Saarland in the form of a hard coal mining tower.
The Saarvenir also has your own homepage, which shows the story of its creation. You see a designer who wants to please all customer wishes and therefore muddles all the individual models into a single object. In the end he is very satisfied and thinks he has created a piece of art.
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The many areas of application for the bizarre pile of plastic are described on the page. With “Augmented Reality” you can bring the Saarvenir directly to your home. You do this on a screen or with glasses, virtual information and the real environment overlap. Another option is to download the model as a file and print it yourself on the 3D printer.
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And then there is its own “Saarvenir shop” on the website. Here you can buy the plastic model as a two-dimensional motif on things like cutting boards, cups, stickers or refrigerator magnets. So people have done their homework here and thought of many types of marketing exploitation, courageously and freely – across all aesthetic boundaries.
More bizarre marketing ideas:
Opinion Kalauer as a campaign
At the end you will be kindly invited to Saarland on the website. Quote: “Or you can come visit us in Saarland and experience the individual components of Saarvenir up close. We would be very happy.” That is certainly the best solution: forget Saarvenir, go to Saarland yourself and look for better souvenirs there.
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