TAKEAWAY: When Pope Benedict XVI comes to Germany, Bild zeitung prepares well, and, as it always does, it is over the top——in this case a giant poster of the smiling Pope covering 19 floors of the Axel Springer Building, Bild’s home, in Berlin.
A welcome fit for a (German) Pope
Frank Deville sends us this set of pictures from today’s Bild.
When the announcement was made that German-born Joseph Ratzinger
had been named Pope, the always fun and irreverent Bild shared the pride of every German on its front page with a headline that read: We Are Pope!
It was a front page that resonated with the readers, and with the media colleagues—-we saw reproductions of that front page everywhere.
Well, now Pope Benedict XVI is coming to Germany for a four-day visit, including one day in Berlin (home to Bild) and, typical of the larger than life approach to things that the ever popular Bild takes, it is unveiling a giant poster to welcome the Pope. The poster will hang on the side of the Axel Springer building in Berlin, covering 19 floors, with a replica of that famous We Are Pope! front page.
When you talk about a newspaper establishing links with its community, doing things over the top, and expressing joy, all at the same time, nobody does it like Bild.
It is no surprise that five million read it daily.
Poster facts: It measures 45 by 64 meters. It took 8 days to put all the strips of the poster together; a specialized group of engineers worked on putting the poster together; and it will take one day to hang the poster, with the smiling Pope image, as he arrives in Berlin.
