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Graham Perolls, Romania’s Hospices of Hope founder was awarded in 2013 with the order of the British Empire OBE by the Queen. He is the founder of the first charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for terminally ill children and adults in Romania, Hospice Casa Sperantei.19
These can all be consider to be valuable ambassadors when presenting the country to the British audience but have not yet been used in such a manner.
6.5 Programs
6.5.1 “Explore the Carpathian Garden” Tourism Campaign 2009
The only attention the campaign received was due to the scandal regarding the possible theft of the imaged used in the background of the new visual campaign image for Romania and how the European Union funds were spend on this campaign.
Statistics reveal that these ads have been ineffective at attracting tourists. Despite the two million Euros used for the Land of Choice campaign, the number of tourists in Romanian hotels decreased by 21.9 % in 2009.
Newspaper articles with headlines such as “Romanian Tourism in Free Fall” and
“Romania, the European Country with the Lowest Number of Foreign Tourists,” reported a shrinking number of foreign visitors. In other words, the state’s attempts to divert its rebranding strategy away from the “Draculescu” legacy have failed so far. Foreign marketing experts, and even some critical scholars, tend to blame the strategy itself.20
19 Corina Chirileasa,“Graham Perolls, Hospices of Hope Founder: From the Family’s Car Business in U.K., to Palliative Care Hospices in Romania,” Romania Insider, April 9, 2013, accessed April 15, 2013,
http://www.romania-insider.com/graham-perolls-hospices-of-hope-founder-from-the-familys-car-business-in-uk-to-palliative-care-hospices-in-romania/79434/
20 Aniko Imre and Alice Bardan, “Branding Romania II, or, the End of Choice,” paper presented at FLOW Conference University of Texas 2012, accessed June 21, 2013,
http://flowtv.org/2010/05/branding-romania-ii-or-the-end-of-choice-aniko-imre-and-alice-bardan-university-of-southern-california/
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Posters were put up with information about great Romanian scientists and sports people who have made a difference in the world, aiming at improving Romania’s image abroad.
The campaign, started and supported by several media outlets in Romania – ProTV channel, Ziarul Financiar, Gandul and Sport.ro – comes just before Romania’s National Day on December 1.
The posters mention Henri Coanda, the inventor of the jet engine, Ilie Nastase – World Number One tennis player twice, Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Nicolae Paulescu, who discovered insulin in 1922 and Stefan Odobleja, who laid the foundations for Cybernetics in 1941. The posters are printed in English, Spanish, German, and Italian.21
6.5.3 London Cultural Olympics 2012
For the 2012 London Cultural Olympics, the Romanian Cultural Institute organized a series of 17 events. The Romanian Cultural Institute is considered to be one of the most active foreign cultural centers in London. One of these events was represented by an open air sculpture exposition in Victoria Park and London Pleasure Gardens made by the artist Ernö Bartha.
ROlympics was organized in partnership with important local British institutions as–
Southbank Centre, British Library, Holland Park Opera, Regal Stratford East Theater, Kings Place – and the events were part of important cultural festivals in London as– London Festival, Big Dance Festival, London International Theatre Festival, Poetry Parnassus, Wide Open School, London Festival of Architecture, River of Music and Thames Festival.
Romanian Cultural Institute participated with a programme of projects to generate a significant impact and highlight, through excellence, the Romanian offer among over 1,000 artistic events scheduled to unfold under the aegis of the Cultural Olympiad. The events meant to
21 Romanian Insider Publication, “Romanians Spread ‘Why I love Romania’ Campaign With Posters of the Great and the Good,” Romania Insider, November 28, 2011, accessed May 12, 2013,
http://www.romania-insider.com/romanians-spread-why-i-love-romania-campaign-with-posters-of-the-great-and-the-good/41507/
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generate a concrete and log-standing impact, to perpetuate the Romanian presence also after the end of the Olympic year.
At the same time, the Romanian Cultural Institute presence will delimit a Romanian captivating and original perimeter, able to attract the attention of a mass audience. The institute has been operational since 2006 and during the first years of institutional development, in parallel with the expansion of the Romanian Cultural Institute network, Romanian Cultural Institute London stood out as an active presence among the institutes of cultural diplomacy from London.
Romanian Cultural Institute became a founding member in 2008 and in the first two years held the chairmanship of the British cluster of the European Union National Institutes for Culture.
The Cultural Olympiad is a complex British program, which includes actions and events aimed to celebrate creativity and diversity of artistic expression forms, in the context of international participation in the Olympics, the main theme of the program being "London, seen as a global capital of artistic creativity".22
6.5.4 “Why Don’t You Come Over” Campaign 2013
The campaign was initiated by the Romanian newspaper “Gandul” and not by the Romanian government.
The Romanian Ambassador to the United Kingdom has made an official statement and has participated in a round table discussion organized by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration of the British Parliament.
On 20 March 2013, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration of the British Parliament held a roundtable on immigration from Romania and Bulgaria as of 1 January 2014. All-Party Parliamentary Group information materials prepared before the meeting by the Secretariat Group and present some background elements on immigration and reflect the assessment Romanian
22 Embassy of Romania to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, “Romania to Participate in 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London,” accessed June 12, 2013,
http://doha.mae.ro/en/romania-news/1432
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destination for work, after raising restrictions.The document cites a statement by the Parliamentary Group Ambassador of Romania in London, Dr. Ion Jinga, according to which the restrictions will not lead to a significant increase in the number of Romanians who will arrive in the United Kingdom next year, but will help prevent exploitation and providing treatment Romanian citizens discrimination already established in this country.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration of the British Parliament is chaired by Jack Dromey, Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington and includes Labour MPs, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
The Group's mission is to provide an opportunity for further public and political discourse on the challenges and opportunities related to contemporary migration flows in Great Britain. Secretariat is provided by the Network Group for the rights of migrants (Migrants' Rights Network), a London charity that campaigns for promoting the rights of immigrants in the UK.23
Since this intervention at the beginning of 2013 only in July we can see another official statement about publications in the press about Roma people.
Following a number of articles published this week in the British media concerning the issue of ethnic Roma people of Romanian origin in London, on 15th of July, the Ambassador of Romania in the United Kingdom, has sent clarifications to the newspapers in question.24
2013 campaign “Why don’t you come over” initiate by the newspaper “Gandul” in collaboration with GMP Advertising and WebStylerwas included an open letter to the prime minister published in the Guardian, prints with suggestive slogans as invitations to visit Romania,
23 Embassy of Romania to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland “Dezbaterea APPG Despre Imigraţia din România şi Bulgaria,” accessed May 14, 2013,
http://londra.mae.ro/local-news/1300
24 Embassy of Romania to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, “The Embassy of Romania Clarifies a Number of Issues Mentioned, This Week, in Several News Articles Concerning Ethnic Roma People of Romanian Origin in London,” accessed June 12, 2013,
http://londra.mae.ro/en/local-news/1361
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a website with a communication platform for people from both countries, http://whydontyoucomeover.gandul.info/.
One British parliamentary delegation came to Romania and talked to the organizers of the campaign on topics that also included immigration to the United Kingdom.
International media as Financial Times, Associated Press, BBC News, Huffington Post, Reuters, ZDF, Daily Mirror, The Independent, El Mundo, The World and BBD Lincolnshire picked up the news about the campaign.
This campaign also made it in the Time magazine becoming the first Romanian branding campaign to be written about in this publication.25
The campaign got also included in the short list for the Cannes Lions 60th International Festival of Creativity Competition.