Screenshot: RTL

One of the most famous faces at RTL Luxembourg is Joëlle Kirsch.

And she doesn’t actually work at RTL. So she’s been working for RTL and on RTL since 2009, but not as what you think. Even if you remember the famous „Weatherwoman“ – the weather presenter – as part of the team, or even as a journalist for radio reports, her employer is primarily the advertising agency „IP“. Joëlle Kirsch does not have a journalist’s card, but works as a „Copywriter & Voice“ for IP Productions.

In a world where ethics would play a role, this is where the problem would begin - and Joëlle Kirsch would probably no longer appear on RTL. Or can a person in Luxembourg not only provide their face and voice for information that RTL must provide as part of the valid state treaty, but also for products? Joëlle Kirsch not only presents the weather for RTL Luxembourg, but also the latest services, events or products. Sometimes she does both at the same time.

This also means that for Joëlle Kirsch, the transition between reporting and advertising becomes invisible. She is one of the few people who work at RTL, that is, at IP, who do this impossible balancing act. What do you do when you find a topic that you are passionate about and at the same time talk about it with a company that is willing to pay for the interview? Joëlle Kirsch is notably the host of an exclusive talk format about finance, which can be found in the media library of rtl.lu, the media platform subsidized by the state as a „public service“. In collaboration with ALFI, she produces the podcast Money Talks – sponsored content, which advertises companies..

Just as Joëlle Kirsch’s face is recognizable from the Meteo, her unique voice is also very well known. Such a level of recognition is worth its weight in gold and can also be marketed well in other side jobs as an animator. That’s why Joëlle Kirsch advertises everything on RTL. Be it for a good cause – a non-profit organization that raises awareness of the risks of hair loss – for the offers of the CFL’s holiday destinations or for a company that helps with hair problems (and advertises on its own page with a screenshot of rtl.lu) .

Wait, did we just say advertising? Although these formats are advertisements, they have a journalistic appeal and can therefore always be concluded with the words: „You can find all the reports of this week on radio.rtl.lu“. The public should ultimately feel that they have been informed and not that they have been sold something. Consequently, these „reports“ can be found not only in an advertising section on the Radio RTL website, but in the National News category on rtl.lu, where the title „Well dressed in autumn with the Marx fashion house“ then lands between the pictures of car accidents and the copied press releases.

Photo: RTL

Is it then the case that Joëlle Kirsch ultimately only works as an advertising reporter for the advertising agency IP and simply has the bad luck that some of her ads end up being misclassified as journalistic content? Did she also just accidentally slip into the list of RTL crews? and accidentally get a photo of herself with the red RTL background taken? And in the photo at the time, where Joëlle Kirsch apparently uses the format „you already knew“ for IP at the FEDIL event, you can see an RTL microphone, just because at that moment all the IP microphones were being used.

Sometimes Joëlle Kirsch is not so sure herself. That’s why it’s just a matter of being careful to always have two microphones with her. To be extra exemplary, now that RTL is a public service, she always does the same interview with the same person twice in a row when she moderates a Cactus celebrity dinner. Once in case it’s supposed to be an advertisement for IP and once in case it turns out that she’s a journalist.