(Online) Banking on "el Che"

A couple of days ago I passed through Zurich's central train station. This billboard is taking up some 30 square meters (320 square feet) of a wall in the main hall:

The billboard is new: it wasn't there last time I walked across the hall, a couple of weeks ago. The portrayed person is the Latin-American marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967). The slogan says "Be reasonable, demand the impossible", a widely-quoted sentence attributed to him. The company using both the iconic guerrillero's image and the slogan is the most successful Internet-only Swiss bank, Swissquote. The advertised product is an entry-level online stock trading package sold in conjunction with investment bank Vontobel.
Guevara's revival is in full swing: the movie "Diarios de motocicleta" (The motorcycle diaries) portrayed him two years ago as a romantic globetrotter; Actor Benicio del Toro is playing his role in the upcoming (and already controversial) biography "Che"; And his face, the symbol of rebellion, is printed on t-shirts worn by people who often have little, if any, idea of who he was.
While I was waiting for my train I observed for a few minutes those walking past the billboard, and nobody really seemed to pay attention to it, or showed any surprise. Yet, Guevara is the most unlikely testimonial for a bank - and particularly for a Swiss bank. The only person I know who actually met him is the Geneva sociologist Jean Ziegler (currently UN's special rapporteur for the "right to food"). I couldn't reach Jean to ask him for a comment, but in one of his books, "Le Bonheur d'être Suisse" (published in 1993) he tells of a meeting he had with "el Che" in Geneva in 1964 (my translation):

At the time, I wanted to go live in Cuba. (...) It was dawning and the city under us was slowly waking up. (...) In his green military fatigue, the "Che" was standing by a window. He called me, and in his warm, ironic voice he told me: "Do you see this town? Here, you are in the head of the monster! What more do you want? Your fight is here!"

His fight against the global financial system that had in Geneva one of its main nodes, that's what was meant. Ironically, Swissquote's headquarter is a mere 15-minutes drive from the hotel where that conversation took place.

Comments

[Juan]

Hi,
El che guevara was Argentinian and not Cuban.
Cheers, Juan

[BG]

Indeed, he was Argentinian. But he also was one of the leaders of the Cuban guerrilla, and in the early 1960s a member of the Cuban government.

[Henrik]

Besides the fact - as you mentioned - that most people do not really know who Guevara really was, the business of advertising is mainly about attracting peoples attention. Nowadays it is not that easy. Do you remember the shocking Benetton billboards? Antagonisms lead to discussion and discussion leads to popularity. That's what they want to reach!

[helle Lyster]

Dear Mr. Bruno Giussani.
I am making a documentary about Che Guevara for The Danish Broadcasting Corporation. I would like to use your photo of the Che/Swiss- poster in the street. May I do that ?
Best regards,
Helle Lyster,producer

[BrunoG]

Sure, no problem, use it. It was NOT in the street however, it was in the main hall of Zurich Central Station. Please when your documentary is released, do let me know. Thank you, B-