BND opens fanshop for promotional items: win new employees with tennis socks

If you walk through the government district, you can regularly see it hanging over your shoulders: the Bundestag jute bags with the striking white eagle on a gray background. If you want more, you can let off steam in your own Bundestag shop: Bundesatgradiergumis, Bundestag powerbank. Faber-Castell even published its own writing set with a federal eagle.

Now the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) follows up. Fans have been able to buy fan articles since Monday morning – online and on site. The interest is there, said BND press spokeswoman Julia Linner, in an interview with the Tagesspiegel: “The demand for BND merchandise is huge. So far we have had competitions as part of our social media work or in public appearances, for example on the open day of the Federal Government.”

Stockings for potential employees

Striking: “Even when it came to a jute bag, up to ten thousand people participated. The interest in the BND socks was even greater. We recorded several thousand participants in a competition last year.” By the way, classic tennis socks – you go over time.

Important: The intelligence service does not initially make financial profits with the sale. “There is one proceeds now, for the BND,” said Linner. “We do not take any license fees, because first of all you need a solid demand so that the project works in the long term. The companies are in advance.”

The intelligence service is primarily concerned with being attractive as an employer: “With the BND shop we want to reach young people and increase our awareness. Because the BND is an exciting employer and is always looking for young people,” says Linner. The authority is continuously looking for personnel.

Among the applicants for the license award, a community of three German companies was awarded the contract – including one from Bielefeld and two from Hagen. The high quality of the products was central to the award.

Linner said with a view to the demand: “Since we are an authority that works with tax money, we could not meet this great interest. So we had to think about something else to bring the popular BND articles to the people. So now take over these three companies production, advertising and logistics.” The German Bundestag and the ESA would have given the sale of their fan articles in a similar way.

And even abroad, they have been informed: “The CIA as well as the FBI sell their merchandise articles in stationary shops,” said Linner. The BND, on the other hand, offers its articles online, in a vending machine in the visitor center on Chausseestrasse in Mitte and for the employees also in the BND canteens. Internally, at the BND employees, articles are particularly popular for everyday office life, such as cups, thermal socks or keychain.

© BND

Logo checked, eagle protected

The BND shop starts with twenty products this week. “We have concluded a license agreement for the use of our logo and name, which runs for over six years and has been advertised across Europe,” said Linner. In order for this to be possible, the BND left the uniform design of the federal government. “We had the logo, the eagle, and the lettering protected last year at the brand and patent office,” said Linner.

And apparently the shop arrives: There are many positive comments on the associated Instagram page on Monday. The focus here is: the socks.

Incidentally, the domestic intelligence service, the protection of the constitution, is not currently planning anything comparable. However, that could still come. So far you have not been able to buy appropriate products. Spokeswoman Isabelle Kalbitzer told Tagesspiegel: “There are articles that are distributed at trade fairs or are raffled off on Instagram. We are currently in a further development process. Public relations is part of it.” It is currently still unclear whether one wants to take the BND path in terms of fan articles.

Incidentally, the model, the extensive Bundestag shop, lacks a decisive product: the striking Bundestag jute bags cannot be bought. They are a “give-away”, the Bundestag administration explained on request.