Nett hier

 

Nett hier. Aber waren Sie schon mal in Baden-Württemberg? (Nice here. But have you ever been to Baden-Württemberg?)

This is a slogan from a 1999 marketing campaign by the advertising agency Scholz & Friends for the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Even though I was living at that time in Tübingen which is located in Baden-Württemberg, I was completely unaware of this campaign. I was busy with a toddler and my volunteer work at the crisis hotline.

Years later, the slogan has been printed on stickers - and they seem to appear everywhere. I first saw it in an Instagram post by my daughter. She had seen it in Gent, Belgium, in the summer of 2024. 

When we travelled later that year, we saw it as well.

In Hamburg...

Before I go on, I want to make something clear: I am not at all a fan of pasting stickers everywhere. Actually I find it quite hideous. However, seeing this sticker I couldn't help but feel a bit of local pride. Not of the sticker or the people who thought it necessary to stick it there, but because of the place it represents. Even though I had lived in four German states (Lower-Saxony, North Rine-Westphalia, Hesse, and Baden-Württemberg), slowly moving from the North to the Southwest, it is Baden-Württemberg that I call my home.

In Moab, Utah...

On a stop sign along Highway 12 in Utah (you almost can't see it)...

With all of these I was sort of okay with (well, not really, to be honest). It's not beautiful, but it's a sign of our time to leave our crap everywhere. I don't waste any grievance on that.

But what I came upon in Bryce Canyon was not okay at all.

Obviously someone had unsuccessfully tried to remove it. This is made to stick - and it is disgusting. No local pride was left here, just a very bad calling card.