Media in Switzerland

Each time I walk to through the city of Lausanne (particularly on my way to Manora) I am bombarded by a mixture of advertisements that represent very different products and issues. One key difference that I have noticed in the advertisements in Lausanne as opposed to America deals with the issue of sexuality. The signs here are much more sexually oriented, from the breast cancer ads to the ads for designers. In America, one would never see an ad for breast cancer that shows a clearly damaged breast of a woman that has been through breast cancer. It would be offensive to many and would probably be taken down. You would probably see something along the lines of a pink breast cancer ribbon with the words "hope" "courage" etc. However, this ad in Lausanne to me, represents power, and is a visual way to show people the breast cancer is real and that it affects many women. To my knowledge, the people in Lausanne are not even fazed by the ad when they pass it. European culture tends to embrace sexuality where as America shuns it and because of this, advertisers feel the need to rise up and over-sexualize the media we are exposed to, in a non-classy fashion. I have also noticed more images that are powerful without words in Lausanne where as in America I have noticed a combination of words and graphics.