Europees Parlement lanceert TV spotje "It's your choice" (en)

"It's your choice", says the European Parliament in a TV spot, released today, on how voting in the 4-7 June 2009 European elections can empower citizens.

The spot, in 34 languages, is part of a campaign toolkit that includes a radio spot, billboards, travelling "choice boxes" that record and display voters' views, web pages, actions for the press like a press kit and seminars for journalists as well as contributions to social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr etc.

The multilingual TV spot was designed by Parliament's Directorate-General for Communication to be adapted to the 27 EU Member States' national audiences. It is fully subtitled and tailored to hard-of-hearing audiences.

National versions of the spot feature national TV celebrities, e.g. in Germany, footballer Oliver Kahn, singer Inka Bause and presenter Johanna Klum. The Greek version features actor Renos Haralambidis and entertainer Rika Vagianni.

The spot shows people in fictitious TV news studios, announcing news that they would like to hear. Its key claim points out that although this "news" is fictitious, citizens can shape tomorrow's news by exercising their right to vote for policy options. 

About 750 citizens of 27 nationalities were cast for this vast production which features about 70 non-professional news presenters filmed at the United Visions TV studios in Berlin in February.

Trusting in the goodwill of audiovisual media all over Europe, Parliament has sought to produce a professional product, for which it has obtained free media space in all European countries. The spot will be broadcast by over 100 TV channels.

Thanks in part to the European Commission's co-operation, the TV spot will be aired for free in around 1,000 cinemas during the remaining four weeks of the campaign.