Indian Ad Mixes Up Boarding School Pic With German President Palace, Ambassador Calls Out (image-twitter/AmbAckermann)
An advertisement inviting the Delhi parents to a “mega gathering of India’s leading boarding schools” caught the attention of Dr Philip Ackermann, the German Ambassador to India and Bhutan. He immediately noticed the glaring error and posted it on microblogging platform X. He pointed out that the advertisement of Premier Schools Exhibition used a picture of Bellevue Palace, located in Berlin instead of a boarding school image.
“Dear Indian parents – I found this in today’s newspaper. But this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were. There are good boarding schools also in Germany – but here, no child will be admitted,” he posted on X.
Dear Indian parents – I found this in today’s newspaper. But this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were. There are good boarding schools also in Germany – but here, no child will be admitted 😎. pic.twitter.com/ftbEeJk724
— Dr Philipp Ackermann (@AmbAckermann) September 30, 2023
The advertisement featured the 20th edition of Premier Schools Exhibition to be conducted in New Delhi.
The ad caught the attention of many soon after it was posted by the ambassador and fact checker and Alt news cofounder Muhammad Zubair was among them. He reposted the ambassador’s tweet with the caption, “German Ambassador to India is Fact Checking ads on Indian Newspapers now .”
German Ambassador to India is Fact Checking ads on Indian Newspapers now. 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/hnjEyuRKpM
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 30, 2023
Muhammad Zubair also posted the image of Bellevue palace’s picture along with the tweet.
The post went viral and garnered mixed reactions. Few laughed it out, while some thanked the ambassador for bringing this to public attention.
“We”d like to clarify that the image used in our advertisement was sourced from Shutterstock, a reputable stock image platform. As per Shutterstock”s guidelines, paid subscribers can use their images for creative representation, advertisements, and other specified uses. The intent behind using this image was to depict a conceptual representation of a heritage boarding school and create a specific visual perception for our audience. Admittedly, we should have been more discerning about the background of the image. We sincerely regret any confusion or inconvenience this might have caused,” said the organiser of the event who also instructed the image to be taken off from promotions as soon as possible, says Hindustan Times.
