„Why don’t you come over?” – The prompt humorous response from Gandul.info and GMP to the British „You won’t like it here” campaign against potential Romanian immigrants

Following the viral spread and media coverage of the online ads for the „Why don’t you come over” campaign, the initiators, GMP Advertising and online newspaper Gandul.info feel the need to clarify their reasons and aims.

The campaign effort was triggered by various reports in the British media regarding a possible governmental initiative of launching a negative ad campaign to discourage Romanians and Bulgarians from coming to work in Britain by presenting how unattractive Britain is. „I wouldn”t say we were deeply offended by the British initiative, but we felt it deserved an answer that tackles this ridiculous fear of us invading the UK. The solution was to turn this (false) problem on its head and invite the British to invade us instead,” says Mihai Gongu, Creative Director, GMP Advertising.

The viral ads that started within 24 hours of the British campaign carry such messages as „Half of our women resemble Kate, the other half her sister.” or „Our draft beer is cheaper than your bottled water” and even a cheekier „Charles bought a house here in 2005. And Harry has not been photographed naked once”. The tagline is „You may not like Britain, but you will love Romania. Why don”t you come over?”.

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The campaign aims at bridging the gap between good people and open-minded people from both countries. „We believe that the public is smarter than politicians and has a better understanding of the real issues at hand. There will be no Romanian invasion in the UK: it’s an insult to British people’s intelligence that some of their own politicians are perpetrating by talking about this false danger,” says Claudiu Pandaru, editorial director of Gandul.info.

The campaign is also an opportunity for a sincere call for Britons to visit Romania. It is based on the belief that Romania is a much better country and Romanians a more decent people than the negative image painted by some recent stories in British and international media. The huge majority of Romanian immigrants across Europe are honest people who work and pay their taxes.

The response in social media was nothing short of impressive with over 300,000 Romanians viewing, commenting or sharing the posters on Facebook in the first 24 hours. Romanians started generating their own posters via a special application that we recently put up where users can type their own humorous headlines to get the Brits to move to Romania.

Gandul.info is the leading online newspaper in Romania – owned by Mediafax Group, the strongest media group in the country. GMP Advertising is one of the most important independent agencies.