http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd_aztCmUMw
As the countdown to the Euros continues, one Dutch TV ad has upset the Ukrainians as it advises Dutch women to keep their men at home this summer.
There is a diplomatic incident brewing in Holland after a TV ad advising Dutch women to keep their men at home and out of the clutches of Ukrainian beauties ruffled some feathers over in Kiev.
The ad for Dutch energy company NLE, which you can see above, shows a Google image search result for ‘Ukrainian women’ before advising women to keep their men at home, before the unseen Dutch lady then decides to buy a domestic beer tap to keep her man happy in his own house.
It’s not the cleverest ad in the world and it seems to us to be an abvious joke but it has upset the lads in Kiev.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Holland, Olexander Horin, told AFP yesterday: “I’m anxious and dismayed that it could send the wrong image, the wrong image to the Dutch people and also to the Ukrainian people, who are waiting to give their hospitality to Euro 2012 visitors.
“I will ask the company to remove the commercial from television: it’s a latent appeal not to visit Ukraine and the Euro 2012,” he added.
But the company behind the ad, NLE, are not backing down. Harald Swinkels, NLE’s chief executive said the ad was “obviously played on humour and cliches”.
“It’s only an advertising campaign by a Dutch company, broadcast in the Netherlands: it’s not going to stop people from going to the Ukraine,” he said, before adding that the ad is set to run for the next eight weeks.
The two men were scheduled to meet yesterday to discuss the matter, with Swinkels saying: “I want to explain to him why we made the spot, why it’s funny and why it does not stop people from going to the Ukraine.”
At least the ad is getting lots of exposure for NLE, so it has worked for them. Perhaps the Ukrainian’s are being a little over sensitive in this case.
