Photo: Twitter @RTLlu - RTL Luxembourg

This artist does not only mixes advertising with journalism, but also business with pleasure.

One of the most important minds behind the overpowerful advertising agency IP is not the racist head on the logo, but Camille Ney.

You’ve probably heard his name before, if not, you definitely know his voice. Close your eyes, imagine you’re listening to RTL and after the famous phrase „Wousst der schonn?“ a male, not too dark, relatively monotonous and slightly nasal voice appears. Yes, that’s him. That’s brand value. Every child knows right away that this is RTL. But even the children are wrong.

„Wousst der schonn“ is not an RTL format but an IP format. Viva Vakanz, Camille’s probably most famous show, too. Camille’s talents are manifold and, even if his voice doesn’t sound like it, the man has virtually unlimited energy, which he can channel into his many side businesses.

The party animal and the man of pleasure

As „Sailor K1000“ (Ka-Mille), he performed together with his colleague „Käpt’n Ändä“ and [created] the atmosphere at RTL fiestas and similar cultural events. A party man, entertainer and an „artist“, is what his colleagues at RTL call him when [advertising] his new CDs on the air. „Work colleague“ could perhaps have been said more transparently. But RTL often has working relationships with people they interview as guests, so that would be just a boring detail.

The head behind IP doesn’t just have a lot of different job titles, but also a lot of different headwear: sailor’s cap, IP plums, RTL cap and even a gourmet hat?

„It’s true that I have several caps. It’s also true that I like to drink and eat. It turns out that I hosted the shows Viva Vakanz and Viva la vida on RTL for 25 years. For that, I traveled a lot and I used to end my stays abroad with a short visit to a fine grocery store to bring back gourmet souvenirs.“ This is how Camille explains the inspiration behind his delicatessen shop. The busy man also runs a fine grocery store in Zolwer.

The radio person?!?

Whoever thinks that Camille would neglect his work at IP because of all his other responsibilities, is kidding himself. This man even works on vacation. Just post all the vacation photos on rtl.lu, pack the RTL microphone and put on the RTL jacket and voila two flies with one blow. The contribution that is recorded there with the RTL microphone is again intended for IP, but Camille produces all his contributions for RTL at heart.

Or is Camille Ney actually employed by RTL and IP at the same time? He seems to work only as „Head of Productions“ at the advertising company IP, but also, according to his self-description on the IP website, as „Product Manager RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg“. Or does this mean that „RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg“ is just one of many products of IP? It probably remains a mystery. This is what you say when RTL violates the press code, which prescribes a clear separation between commercial (IP!) and journalistic (RTL?) work.

Because Camille is of course also a serious journalist, even one of the kind who is allowed to comment on RTL. Camille stands in front of the red logo in the RTL studio and delights the world with analyses such as: „Shouldn’t we all take the initiative to treat each other more kindly and thus turn our cross of nation branding, which is very popular in the voting booths today, into a smiley“. Or also „The music of Palma has never been a Harvard essay and just like with the current gender mania, the question should be allowed: Do we have any worries?“. Wait, „gender mania“ isn’t that a term that was made famous by the far-right FPÖ and is now [used] primarily by the German AfD? Maybe Camille isn’t a serious journalist in every comment, but maybe he’s sometimes a sexist Ballermann-Sailor K1000 on the RTL microphone.

Many hats - or everything under one hat?

But who needs separations between advertising, journalism, après-ski and delicatessen shops? Camille can do it all. At the same time. For example, he can publish an article about a shop on rtl.lu and at the same time own this shop. How is that possible? Maybe it’s like this: Camille Ney, owner of a grocery store, turns to Camille Ney, head of production at the IP advertising agency. Camille commissions and pays Camille to make an advertisement. Camille then takes the advertisement to Camille Ney of RTL, with whom Camille Ney of IP has a deal. Camille then publishes the advertisement on RTL that Camille produced for Camille. Or Camille organizes a sweepstakes. Or he has the singer of „One Last Time“, Andrea Galleti, present Camille Ney’s shop in a „Business-Interview“. And then Camille probably plays the song by K1000. And what do you call the whole thing? Public service.

Is the grocery store Fine in Zolwer too small an example for you of how well Camille gets everything under one roof? But that example can be played out on a larger scale.

During Corona, the Foire Agricole commissioned Camille to design a digital offer so that people can also visit the fair from home. Camille brings „FAE TV“ to life and is looking forward to another sister company of IP and RTL, namely BCE, joining in. RTL reports on how wonderfully it all works. Not just once, but all the time and in the national news section. It is Camille Ney himself who moderates „FAE TV“. „FAE TV“ is consequently also streamed on rtl.lu. What is advertising, what is reporting? What does the taxpayer pay for, what does the client pay for? And who does Camille work for? For himself, of course.