Acropolis advert gets green light
After four weeks of agonizing over the rights and wrongs of letting the Acropolis feature in a corporate advertising campaign, Greece’s top board of antiquities has OK’d the drive, charging a multinational electronics giant 7,043 euros for the service. In a meeting late on Tuesday, the Culture Ministry’s Central Archaeological Council (KAS) gave the green light to the Greek branch of Philips to use images of the ancient citadel in print and TV adverts to be launched globally later this year. The company provided equipment for the new lighting scheme adopted for the Acropolis ahead of the Olympics and has offered to do the same again, free of charge, for a monument of the ministry’s choice. This swayed several KAS members. Others, such as professor of architecture Haralambos Bouras, argued that Philips «is not a barbarous firm.» But the director of the Athens Byzantine Museum, Dimitrios Constantios, voted against the campaign, claiming a favorable decision «will associate this major monument with advertising.» KAS first discussed the controversial matter last month but postponed a ruling until, among others, ministry archaeologists could draw up a list of which monuments should not be used for such purposes. No mention was made of this list on Tuesday.
