OMRI DAILY DIGEST Part II
Vol. 1, No. 13 part II, 18 January 1995
HUNGARIAN SCREENING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN REFUSES TO RESIGN.
Jozsef Eigner, the chairman of the committee of judges
screening high-ranking officials for ties to the former
internal security service or to paramilitary groups that
participated in the armed suppression of the 1956 revolution,
told a press conference on 17 January that he will not
resign, MTI reports. The parliament's National Security
Committee asked Eigner to resign last week on the grounds
that he passed sentences between 1945 and 1963 that were
annulled by parliament in 1990. Those sentences involved
border violations and unlawful possession of arms. Eigner
said that he revealed everything about his past when he was
nominated to head the screening committee under the previous
conservative government. The head of the National Security
Committee, former prime minister Peter Boross, voted against
the decision to ask Eigner to resign; he argued that the
National Security Committee had no legal means of forcing
Eigner to resign and that the call for his resignation will
only serve to make the work of the screening committee
impossible. -- Edith Oltay, OMRI, Inc.
ROMANIAN RULING PARTY REJECTS HUNGARIAN AUTONOMY. In a
statement broadcast by Radio Bucharest on 17 January, the
National Council of the ruling Party of Social Democracy in
Romania "firmly rejected" recent statements of the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania on possible autonomy for the
country's ethnic Magyar population. The communique spoke of
an "anti-constitutional" approach, which might seriously
affect the rule of law in Romania. The PSDR also expressed
surprise over the setting up of a Council of HDFR mayors and
counselors at Sfantu-Gheorghe in southern Transylvania. It
asked HDFR leaders to "renounce a policy that leads to
manifestations of extremism, irredentism and chauvinism."
Most political parties, including the HDFR's allies from the
Democratic Convention of Romania, have already criticized
that party's statements on territorial autonomy based on
ethnic criteria. -- Dan Ionescu, OMRI, Inc.
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Steve Kettle
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.
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Reposting is supported by Hungarian Human Rights Foundation News
and Information Service.
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18 January 1995
Volume 2, Issue 13
BUSINESS NEWS
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**Hungary Looking for Buyers, Too**
Hungary's State Property Agency is putting the large chemical
company, Szolnok-based Tiszamenti Vegyimuvek, up for sale. The
potential buyer must put up 1.3 million dollars in cash, to
compensate local governments, which own 5 percent of the firm.
The company's detergent factory was sold to Henkel Austria in
1992.
**Grey Tuesday for Budapest Stocks**
Trading on the Budapest stock exchange was thin yesterday, with
the index closing down 27.59 points to finish at 13 30.67.
Trading focused on shares in Egis pharmaceuticals and Fotex.
Seven stocks and compensation coupons lost ground, with
Goldsun and Sopron hitting historic lows. Traders say few
foreign investors are buying stock in Budapest right now, and
local investors are more interested in discount treasury
bills, which offer yields higher than 30 %.
BUSINESS FEATURE ----------------
**Ad Execs Learn Culture Through Capitalism**
by David Fondler in Budapest
Under communism, advertising meant little more than propaganda
for state-owned companies. But the influx of western business
into this market has introduced a new kind of commercial
culture. In cooperation with Business Central Europe magazine,
CET's David Fondler reports that Eastern sensitivities to some
Western advertising has been educational for both sides:
The anecdotal evidence is there: sometimes what plays in the
west doesn't play in the east. Procter & Gamble found out the
hard way. In a case cited regularly by advertising insiders, a
1992 commercial convinced Poles that P & G's Wash and Go
shampoo would make their hair fall out. Tim Scott Hunter,
media and research director for Lintas in Hungary, knows of
some other embarrassments:
"We had the experience of Omo soap powder being launched in the
Hungarian marketplace. It is now quoted by every single
graduate we interview as their most hated commercial. It was
basically a pompous arrogant man telling a woman how to wash
her clothes, which in Hungary, is not on."
The advertising gaffs which occurred when east met west
generally happened early on, when the Central European market
first opened up. They have largely been ironed out as western
ad agencies have hired local Central European talent. With
higher budgets and multi-national clients, western firms can
offer top salaries to the best advertising minds, whatever
their nationalities. This is just one of many challenges faced
by local firms like Hungary's HAT. But HAT creative Director
Laszlo Szaszko says his employees are very loyal:
"There is no secret when we recruit anybody. So I always ask
whether the most important thing for them is advertising and
good advertising, and if they say yes, then we agree that the
salaries wouldn't be too high."
It's also hard for local firms like HAT to get and keep top
clients. HAT boasts Magyar Suzuki and Hungary's O-T-P bank as
its biggest accounts. Ken Kasriel, business editor and
Business Central Europe magazine, explains why it's difficult
for Central European ad agencies to lure potential
multi-national clients away from their favorite western firms:
"A lot of client-agency ties are forged on Madison or in London.
These are global arrangements. This has the effect of locking
in the local units of the companies into using the local
affiliates of their global advertising agencies."
Sometimes these established affiliations haven't been well
received locally. Western companies like D-H-L, Philip Morris,
I-B-M and others were happy with the work of local ad agencies
-- until directions came from above to switch to the
corporates' favored multi-national. In Hungary, the Czech
Republic and Poland, Lintas and other large agencies like
McCann-Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi and Young
& Rubicam, all have set up shop, and they're squeezing out the
smaller locals. HAT's Szaszko says this cycle of favoritism is
sometimes highly political, and unfortunate.
"It doesn't depend on our performance, that's a problem."
The difference, says Szaszko, goes back to local sensitivity to
the market. He feels that here, more than anything, is where
local firms can claim an advantage:
"We've grown up here, so we know the culture and the history. We
know the people. We know what's happened, and we know the
jokes."
Lintas' Hunter acknowledges that it's important to hire local
employees who are sensitive to cultural norms. But also, he
says there's a universal standard of quality in advertising
that applies anywhere:
"Key guidelines. You have to apply those whether it be Togo,
Vietnam, Hungary, France. There are ways of producing
adverting that works."
And that philosophy, combined with western advertising agencies'
ability to hire better people and attract bigger clients, is
helping the west eclipse the east in the world of Central
European advertising.
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.
[*] [*] [*] [*] [*][*] [*][*][*]
[*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*]
[*][*][*] [*][*][*] [*][*] [*][*]
[*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*]
[*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*]
Reposting is supported by Hungarian Human Rights Foundation News
and Information Service.
*****************************************************************
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