“Polska. Spring into.” – different doesn’t always mean better

Seems that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (MSZ in Polish, which stands for Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych) has been feeling some kind of creative urge recently. That in itself I find a good thing, thumbs up for embracing the new and more exciting side of things.
The new campaign promoting Poland in the UK launched a few days ago and you can find posters like the one below on the streets of London.

(Image by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland)

While doing a less stereotypical campaign is a plus, I’m not sure about the creative solution though. What does the poster tell me? That Poland has young, happy people. Nice. But the picture itself is neither attention-grabbing nor very interesting. And the slogan? “Polska. Spring into.” – not grammatically correct – don’t get me wrong, the linguist in me would just shut up if she had a good reason, but does she? However creative the MSZ might think they are, the slogan just doesn’t make much sense. Sorry. Apparently the MSZ are glad with the unclear meaning of the slogan as it’s created some buzz and people were wondering what on earth did the author mean. Fair enough, if it’s been talked about, good for you but…really? Has it sparked that much interest? Personally, if I saw something that unclear, I don’t think I’d bother figuring out the meaning behind the uninteresting and bland poster… It’s London, people! If you want to get an ad noticed here, you need to try harder.
I’d love to be able to praise the campaign because promoting Poland abroad is a great idea but… It’s with the aching heart that I must say maybe the creators weren’t as clever or funny as they thought they were. The potential has been wasted.

Nice try MSZ, try again.

(That’s my personal view. What do you think about the campaign?)

And just to prove it CAN be done, a little reminder of the brilliant campaign promoting Romania in the UK (link below). Not only did they show a great sense of humour but also did it as a response to an offensive British campaign discouraging Romanians from coming to the UK. Spot on, way to go Romania!