You didn’t have to like Erich von Däniken. But in terms of his influence on global popular culture, he is on a par with fellow Swiss artist H.R. #Giger.
They both helped shape popular culture in the 70ies+. Both are hated in Switzerland for their success in the #popular sphere. But both are actually giants, one in visual & narrative with his slender fitness monster #alien and his dark dystopias of the #1980s (also in his artistic work before aliens).
The other, #VonDäniken (#75+ millions sold books), on the other hand, is omnipresent in films, anime, manga, and games — his ideas are narrative mechanisms in themselves. It has become a narrative topos/mechanism to flee into space when you get stuck in the story/game mechanics and then return to earth (or vice versa). How many films and games thrive on this, from trash to high culture? Countless.
Now that he is dead, it will be possible to begin tracing his cultural influence. In #Switzerland too, even scientifically.
#VonDäniken’s (a swiss citizen with a title of nobility) only mistake was probably that he never fully understood that he was operating in the realm of fiction with his Roadside Picnics (Strugatsky).