The traffic light government could not bring itself to “free travel”, but announced €9 monthly tickets for public transport as part of the relief package. The start of the three-month campaign is already eagerly awaited. A campaign started on April 3rd that went even further. With the hashtag #evenbetterweiter, it should even be possible to travel free of charge on Deutsche Bahn's Regional Express lines. This quickly turned out to be fake. But definitely one of the more interesting varieties. EDIT: With the ending still open!
What exactly had happened?
The highly professionally designed website deutschland-faehrung-gratis.de claimed in a serious manner that Deutsche Bahn AG would top the already attractive offer from the traffic light government. From April 4th you can travel free on the regional express for three months. Nationwide. Local transport would also follow suit.
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The homepage showed an enthusiastic-looking young lady with a tablet in front of a soft-focus train platform background, holding a plastic card into the camera. Unfortunately, this map is also blurred, so that only the slogan “Germany travels for free” can be seen relatively clearly, but all other design elements cannot be clearly recognized. In the top right corner you can see a small red rectangle that looks suspiciously like the Deutsche Bahn logo. As does the entire visual language of the website.
The review of the imprint originally led to an initiative, “Germany makes mobil 2030” ( HERE ), which already caused a sensation in autumn 2021 with a real campaign ( HERE ). For two weeks, ticket subscribers were able to travel by train through Germany free of charge as part of the Mobility Weeks. The campaign's hashtag at the time was #betterfurther. The hashtag #evenbetterweiter used in the current campaign seemed at first glance to be a logical development. Partners in the “Germany makes mobile” initiative are the German transport companies, the ADAC and the German Association of Cities. So everything is very serious. No reason to be suspicious here. Theoretically.
The website is no longer accessible, but can still be accessed HERE
Lots of details
The creators of the site were very thorough and added a lot of detail to the site so that it had a high level of credibility. In addition to testimonials from politicians, an archive of press releases was also created.
Elsewhere it is also pointed out that the free travel campaign is “the result of intensive negotiations with the ministries”.
What could cause suspicion?
A critical look at the photo is quite clear. If it was actually a campaign by Deutsche Bahn, the front of the card that the young woman is holding up to the camera would certainly have been clearly readable, especially the company logo. The interaction between hand and card would have been worth a deeper look. It would probably have been possible to find evidence that the image had been edited, because if you look closely, they don't match up 100%.
Other unusual features include the fact that tickets should only be available at the counter. This would be very unusual for Deutsche Bahn, which uses a very efficient online booking system ( HERE ). For the 2021 campaign, the free tickets were also available via PDF ( HERE ) in order not to overwhelm the already short-staffed sales points and information centers in the train stations. The extremely short notice would also be unusual. Putting a campaign online on April 3rd that people can travel for free as early as April 4th will undoubtedly cause considerable confusion.
The campaign went viral
The campaign went online on April 3rd and immediately went viral. The free ticket was shown in various news feeds. Twitter went crazy with the hashtag #evenbetterweiter and soon the first tweet showed up showing a handout. It remains unclear whether these were actually distributed in large numbers and, if so, where.
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The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection reacted at midday of the same day and clearly denied it in various tweets.
“This is a fake campaign!”
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But many transport associations also expressed denials at the weekend. And they must have thanked you for the employee-unfriendly timing.
EDIT: It continues!
Even though the website has now gone offline, the Google cache still has a few surprises in store. Searching for the URL + imprint leads to a new address.
What a coincidence that this Cologne address is home to the production company Entertainment Television Ehrenfeld, UFE, which produces ZDF Magazin Royale. Moderated by Jan Böhmermann.
The following picture was also distributed via messenger services that directly connects Jan Böhmermann's broadcast with the free ride campaign.
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We have now received information directly from Jan Böhmermann. He tells us that ZDF Magazine, his team or himself have nothing to do with this story. So it remains exciting and also unclear who tried to lead the wrong way here.
This should make it clear who started this slightly belated April Fool's joke and who put the Internet and hotlines of transport companies and employees in ticket sales offices all over the country in need of explanation. Jan Böhmermann and his satirical show ZDF Magazin Royale.
The background will probably be the subject of one of the next programs, which will be broadcast on Friday evenings.
Conclusion
The campaign #evenbetterweiter, with which Deutsche Bahn customers can supposedly travel free on regional trains for three months from April 4th, is a fake. By revising the website's imprint, it becomes clear that the production company for the Jan Böhmermann show ZDF Magazin Royale is behind this fake. The site was later taken offline entirely. The exact background of the action is not yet clear. Böhmermann will probably comment on this in one of his next broadcasts.
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )