Nice here! Analogue memes and Baden-Württemberg's "Nett hier" marketing campaign

Can such a thing as an analogous meme exist? We commonly think of memes as inherently digital cultural artefacts. However, memes are also characterised by their participatory nature, their evolution and adherence to some sort of formulaic element that renders the meme recognisable in different context. My region in Germany launched a sticker campaign that, I think, has remarkable parallels with traditional memes.

As young users of the internet, we are probably all familiar with memes. But what exactly is a meme? Prevalent as they are, they’re also notoriously hard to define. I was surprised to learn that the term was coined by no other than Richard Dawkins in 1976 as “units of culture that replicate, spread, and mutate.”

Since then, the definition of the term has evolved significantly to refer primarily to online phenomena. Ben Pattis uses Limor Shifman’s definition of a meme as: 

a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance
b) that were created with awareness of each other and
c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the internet by many users. 

Annie Felix claims that relation to a meme and participation and engagement with it are crucial to its meme-ness and create and reinforce communities. The internet is the perfect spot for such interaction and participation. But what about offline spaces? Could such a thing as an analogue meme exist? Well... read along. 

In 2021, my region in Germany, Baden-Württemberg, launched the self-ironic image marketing campaign "THE LÄND" to improve the international visibility of our industrial region. Part of this marketing campaign are the following stickers: 

The original "THE LÄND" stickers, taken from the "fänshop" of the marketing campaign.

Translated, their text reads “Nice here. But have you already been to Baden-Württemberg?”. (The word “nett” in German is much less enthusiastic and unimpressed than the English word “nice” – it could rather be translated as “okay” or “not bad”.) Since their release, people have started putting these stickers in the most unlikely places all around the world:

A "nett hier" sticker photographed on Mount Everest. The caption reads "not even Mount Everest is safe."

A "nett hier" sticker photographed in Chernobyl.

A "nett hier" sticker on a mountaintop in Italy. The caption reads "However it got there 😭".

The subreddit r/netthier is dedicated to posting and sharing pictures of these stickers in their new habitats.

The pictures posted on the r/netthier subreddit share some characteristics with memes due to the following reasons: 

1. They are a spin on the typical image + text format of popular memes. The ‘caption’ is provided through the sticker and forms the recognisable, characteristic element of the 'meme', while the varying location in the background forms the ‘image’ component. The tension between these two elements creates humour, especially if the location is a famous sight or landmark.
2. Photos of the sticker in its location are shared, liked, and re-shared online. This is a significant overlap with the participatory nature of traditional online memes. 
3. A sticker is an object that invites participation like a meme does. It is uniform in its original state but becomes unique when placed in the context of a specific location. 
4. The stickers create a sense of community. The people who place these stickers in iconic locations are in on the joke, and seeing such a sticker sparks a moment of recognition and community – after all, only German speakers will understand what the sticker says, and only people from Baden-Württemberg will feel a sense of amused regional patriotism at the sight of it.

Due to their rising popularity, these stickers are also more and more frequently altered - or "memed". People in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, have started to use them to make fun of Stuttgart. Other versions have since emerged, but what remains the same is the oval format, the font and positioning of the text, and the "[...] hier" top text. 

"Ugly here. But have you already been to Stuttgart?
Karlsruhe. We can deal with everything. Just not with Swabians."

"Nice here. But have you already been to Hogwarts?" - Granted, they changed the font here, but the oval form and the "Nett hier" top text remain the same.

"Nice here. But have you already been in my bed?" This is from a website dedicated to letting people design their own "nett hier" stickers using a template, which is pretty reminiscent of meme generators.

The adherence to the oval format, font and layout of the sticker is reminiscent of memes. These are the “shared common characteristics” of Shifman’s definition that render a meme recognisable and arguably give it its meme status in the first place. The other criteria apply too: the new spins on the sticker are created with awareness of the original and its implications. They are circulated, imitated and transformed online and offline, adhering to the original format. 

The adherence to the oval format, font and layout of the sticker are reminiscent of memes.

In summary, the ”nett hier” stickers have some meme characteristics. What distinguishes them from traditional online memes is that they are not only digitally created and do not exist solely in online spaces – which is arguably an important part of Shifman’s definition. Instead, they exist as physical stickers in physical locations. They are a sort of ‘analogous meme’ that must be created in the physical world but can then be photographed and perceived in both online and offline spaces.