EXACTLY 300 days before its planned adoption of the European single currency Slovakia has launched a publicity campaign about the new currency. Slovakia is aiming to swap the koruna for the euro on January 1, 2009, the SITA newswire wrote.
On March 7, the Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) launched the first wave of a nationwide TV campaign for the euro, which aims to give people more information about the new currency. Several times a day for the next two weeks all the national television channels will broadcast a 40-second spot called Europríbeh, or Eurostory.
"With this first spot we want to deepen the public's knowledge of some key dates linked to the launch of the new currency, in particular the setting of the conversion rate, the start of dual pricing and so on," Igor Barát, Slovakia's proxy for euro adoption, told SITA. The spot will also have hidden subtitles for hearing impaired people.
The Nový Čas daily uncovered a mistake in the first broadcast item. As it reported on March 11, two different symbols were used for the European currency.
"The production company removed this small inaccuracy before the spot went into TV," Barát told the daily. The withdrawn item was available at Youtube.com and Medialne.sk websites.
Street advertising in 30 towns across Slovakia will also form part of the first wave of the information campaign.
Campaign costs are projected to be Sk180 million, of which 60 percent should come from the state budget. The central bank will cover the rest.
