Minaret Missiles

A “Yes” vote for intolerance and a “No” vote for tolerance confuses matters visually, semantically, and conceptually.
There’s a Tourist Service sign underneath the closest (left-most) poster. If the government (and corporate) predictions are correct, there will be fewer tourists to serve now that Swiss tolerance is called into question.
The “No” alternative offers a pretty picture but it is too diffuse a vision to counter the bold call to action shown above.

as clem guttata said, the “yes” and “no” allocations are very important. and like michael shaw, i really suspect the power of the poster design had a big influence on the vote. the “no” poster was pretty lame.
i have a relative living in switzerland (though i haven’t talked to her about this), and i think it’s hard for us folks in north america to appreciate how valuable physical space (and by extension visual space) is in switzerland. every square inch, er, millimeter is spoken for, controlled, used and allocated. that’s what the “no” poster was attempting to speak to, but people don’t live in the sky, they live on the ground. big poster fail.
a couple years ago when she came to visit, and called home to say we had gone for a walk on the beach _and not met anyone else… i don’t think it was fully believed at the time, as this would not be possible in much of europe.

The minarets look like missiles. And many of them.

This poster is a miracle of Goebbels like propaganda – it is even in the Nazi’s favorite color scheme, black white and red. Not only do the minarets look like missiles, they also look like spikes piercing the heart of Switzerland/Christianity, and the layout resembles a torture victim on a bed of nails – all sorts of thing associated with evil from bit the distant and recent past… It also manages to effectively counteract the yes-means-no confusion mentioned above which was NOT a fault of the poster, but a result of the referendum process. I bet whoever the poster artist is has been immediately sought out by the Republican party in the U.S. … Wanna bet?