Lithuania tourism officials face criticism over new tourism ad campaign

Thursday, August 9, 2018

 The tourism officials of Lithuania have been criticised for a controversial new campaign aimed at attracting millennials from the UK and Germany to Vilnius, the capital city.

The advert is due to be launched on Thursday 9 August, just weeks ahead of Pope Francis’ tour of the Baltic region, which begins in Lithuania.

The new campaign’s tagline is “Nobody knows where it is, but when you find it – it’s amazing. Vilnius: the G-spot of Europe” and features a young woman lying on a map of Europe with her hand gripping Lithuania, her eyes closed in ecstatic bliss.

The critics have questioned the timing of the campaign in a country where the majority of residents identify as Catholic. The Lithuanian priests are reported to have claimed that the image has “used women’s sexuality for advertising” and given outsiders “wrong ideas” about Vilnius.

The advertising students from the country created the controversial campaign in an effort to attract attention to Vilnius as an alternative city-break destination.

The city mayor, Remigijus Šimašius, and Inga Romanovskienė, director of the Vilnius Tourism and Business Development Agency, approved of the campaign. Romanovskienė described the tourism campaign as “extremely engaging“, adding that Vilnius “looks forward to welcoming new international visitors to Vilnius and continuing to promote the city’s best tourism attractions and experiences”.

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