Adjusted advertising for Budapest Pride event corrected by the initial group
In the recent European Forum Alpbach, a controversial advertisement titled "#believeineurope" created by The First Group sparked debate. The advertisement, which has since been deleted from YouTube, featured historical events such as Joan of Arc at Orléans in 1429, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1980. It connected these moments of courage and solidarity with shaping the future.
However, the scene from the Budapest Pride march was removed from the advertisement at the request of Erste Bank Hungary. The bank expressed their belief that other historical events should have been presented instead, as they felt the Pride part was not equally significant for all Hungarians.
The Budapest Pride march was a protest event against the ruling Fidesz party of Viktor Orbán, with approximately 200,000 participants. Pro-government Hungarian media described the inclusion of the Pride scene in the advertisement as a "scandal".
The online portal Index.hu asked The First Group how the Pride ended up in the historical events of the film. In response, The First Group stated that the advertisement was created exclusively for the occasion of the European Forum Alpbach and did not provide an explicit detail of the correction made to the new advertisement.
Despite the controversy, The First Group has since corrected the advertisement that featured a scene from this year's Budapest Pride. The exact date when the correction was made was not disclosed in the search results.
