The government unveiled its PR campaign for the forthcoming Czech presidency of the European Union on Thursday, featuring a host of Czech celebrities and…a sugar cube.
Prime minister Mirek Topolánek says the campaign – which translates roughly as “We’ll Make Things Sweeter For Europe” – is aimed Czech, US experts close talks on industrial cooperation agreement ...
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Prime Minister Topolánek and his deputy for EU affairs Alexandr Vondra unveiled the sugary new campaign at the government offices on Thursday morning. It features billboards and a 30-second video clip, in which Czech celebrities, including ice-hockey star JaromĂr Jagr, goalkeeper Petr ÄŚech and top model Tereza Maxová do amusing things with sugar cubes. So why the sugary theme? Michaela JelĂnková is Mr Vondra’s spokeswoman:
“We really wanted to raise awareness of the European Union, because as you know all over Europe there is a lack of interest in EU matters. In Czech, the slogan has the potential to catch attention. That’s one thing. The second thing is that we are using famous Czech personalities in the TV spot, who have actually sweetened Europe’s life already. The message maybe is that anyone can add sugar or make the life of Europe and the world sweeter if one makes an effort, as these famous personalities have made so far.”
And Michaela JelĂnková went on to explain that the sugar cube was chosen because of its Czech roots - it was invented by one Jakub Krystof Rad, the director of the DaÄŤice sugar refinery, in 1843. Rad was actually a native of Switzerland, and back then DaÄŤice was just a backwater in the Austrian Empire, so there’s some dispute over whether the sugar cube is really Czech.
But never mind the provenance of the cube, the video itself is provocative. It was the country’s rather euro-sceptic president Vaclav Klaus who was credited with the oft-repeated remark back in the early 1990s that the Czech Republic would dissolve in the European Union like a cube of sugar in a cup of coffee. As Alexandr Vondra stressed on Thursday to reporters – we’re not a sugar cube, we invented the sugar cube.
And as Michaela JelĂnková was keen to point out – the phrase “We’ll Make Things Sweeter for Europe” is a literal English translation of an untranslatable Czech phrase, designed to catch the ear of the Czech people, and not meant for foreign consumption. She and her colleagues are still working on a snappy English phrase to accompany the Czech EU presidency that begins on January 1st next year. It’s still at the planning stage, but at the moment the strongest contender is “Czech sugar in the EU’s coffee.”
(radio-Prague)
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