Tourism Promotion FAIL!? Reacting To Vilnius' New Advert

‪@GoVilnius‬ has a new tourism advert! It's pretty funny but has angered a lot of Lithuanians. Granted, they aren't the target audience, and so it will be interesting to see how effective this campaign will be...
In the meantine, I thought I'd take a shot at a reaction video... so here it is!
See the full video uncut and uninterrupted here: • Vilnius: Expectations ...
-----------------
Join this channel as a Patreon patron to get access to perks:
www.patreon.com/user?u=84794387
Find us on our website: www.lithuaniaexplained.com/
Instagram: / lithuaniaexplained
Facebook: profile.php?...

[@sazarkanas5921]

your comment on smiling Lithuanians was spot on

[@iridiandot]

Advert makers set up a “hyperbole” premise with anticipation to massively subvert it, but in reality, Vilnius (and Lithuania as a whole) is somewhat of a mixture of two - some very pretty and cozy spots in city centre, as well as run down wooden house galleries on the outskirts or even within the city.

[@Mendogology]

I'm impressed by the number of people who lack a sense of humor. Even though this promotion isn't entirely to my liking as a promo of Vilnius, I find it very well done and funny. BTW, Canned pizza is a piece of art, wow!

[@sspokss6803]

the street where they were filming the non real soviet part of the video is in the district called Markuciai, more specifically Pakraščio street, its just a small street that has been left out you could say, driving 2 minutes past it and you arrive to markuciu dvaras and a really nice place near vilnia river where you can have rly nice walks and stuff, and driving for a few minutes longer and you arrive at the rich outer city districts

[@travelvideos]

Tourists who come from the West want to experience Eastern European things, so running an ad that implies they won't find any Eastern European stuff anymore is a bit counterproductive. Tourists often ask me where to buy old Soviet memorabilia or antiques. I don't know, but that's what they are looking for. Nobody wants to be stuck in the past, but that's just how it is.

[@petitgateaucafetv366]

Well ... I'm here for the very first ime since last week.... Vilnius is absolutelly awesome, beautiful and have a very rich culture and history.

[@leonardpaplauskas7899]

I have visited my family in Vilnius several times and my impression is that it is an interesting, attractive and cosmopolitan city. Unfortunately, I don’t think the promotional video’s strategy is a good one. Too much time is spent on the satire and not enough on the interesting parts of the city. I don’t think it would influence me to come visit.

[@infiniteworld5855]

I agree

[@aleksandrasmiksenas317]

It's nice that a Westerner like you living in one of the least fancy places of this city has a good grasp of reality and not just either just good or bad.

Lithuania Expectation: Hardbass Lithuania Reality: Hardbass I see no flaw!

[@TheMindoze]

The clip with tires is filmed at 1 Pakraščio g. Vilnius, quite wierd place, to behonest, some industrial stuff, new stuff, old almost abandoned stuff, sort of mish mash of everything.

[@onelungg]

the amount of people who don't understand satire and want to show only good parts of vilnius is too damn high

[@matt_aviz]

Imo, it's not a matter of comprehending satire. Personally, I have an appreciation of this genre of humor. However, keep in mind this is a _promotional_ video. If someone is considering visiting here at all, they'll already have preconceptions in their head. Why spend precious ad time reiterating them? Show the best you've got. When you apply for a job, you're going to promote your advantages, not your bad habits.

[@gintautasgustas3562]

It's filmed at the crossing of Pakrascio and Subaciaus streets.

[@MindaugasSipkauskas]

Never seen banana in soviet times :D And I was born in 1982.

[@fidenemini111]

I was born in 1956 and I've seen and even attempted to eat it. Tbh it happened one time in, looks like betwenn 1960 and 1962, and I still remember it. Bananas were green and the taste reminded the taste of cheap soap (believe me, somehow I tried that too). I was not impressed.

[@markmontague5230]

THAT is some funny stuff!

[@fidenemini111]

I think it was funny. Unfortunately auto-irony mostly works for a domestic viewer (sadly not for eveeyone). As a promotion targeted at a foreigner, I'm afraid, it can be confusing and misunderstood.

[@infiniteworld5855]

I'm kinda neutral about this ad. It's funny and is meant to do a good thing, attract tourists, but I don't know if it will do that. The "expectations" part is too long, I'd say. Maybe people can click off and get bored or even worse, believe that that's how it is right now? I think they should have made this part much shorter and the "reality" part longer. Longer than the "expectations" part even because it is supposed to attract tourists, right? Then who are short and quick clips going to attract? They should have at least mentioned something interesting about these places, even if it's very short. At least maybe this would make tourists more interested. Now I feel like they're going to be more interested in the "expectations" part because it's funny and they're probably going to remember it better than the "reality" part. Or at least, that's just my opinion about it.

[@matt_aviz]

I think a recent YT Short of yours is a better promo than this ad.

[@markust7709]

I dont see how heavy metal music is going along with the promotion of "postcard" views of touristy areas. It is a strange choice...

[@anzelmasmatutis2500]

2:49 Pickled Bananas ?!

[@manometras]

Now, that's funny. A refference to the “banana republic” = a shithole

[@gedog77]

Half my family is Lithuanian and we even have a family meme about taking two photos for every event. The Lithuanian One 😐and the normal one 😊.

[@eglunasklimavicius9771]

❤Aciu

[@RandomCrap]

This advert is hilarious and well done. I know friends who dont like it at all and some foreigners who love it. So its about of your views and sense of humor. Most of people who didnt liked were lithuanians themselves so thats not a surprise at all

[@itsjunchen]

When I saw this video, reminded me of some area and stereotype locals in my own country tho. Weirdly not connected to my impressions of Vilnius 😂 I think it’s universal thing, every city in the world has this type of area and people. But still got a little bit surprised by playing this kind of dark humor in the ad. And people got so triggered and angry in the comments😅 I have friends from London, they came to visit me in Lithuania, and they commented that Vilnius is a clean, cozy, safe and beautiful city to live. But for sure they made traffics and attention on this ad😅

[@mottersscott]

I would actually argue the fact that many people would know about Vilnius in the UK, they may not know the full in's and out's, but certainly will know enough to make an informed decision as to if they should go or not. I think the key thing that they don't know about Vilnius or LT as a whole is that it's actually a great summer vacation spot, especially over at Palanga... That's like some of the UK's beach resorts such as Weston-super-mare, or Torquay etc..but on steroids.. I think if more people knew that summers, although fairly brief are both warm and sunny, with the direct flights to Palanga - more people would come.

[@rickoidas]

Idea of commercial its not bad but execution bad. Because sarcastic part is to long and not everybody will watch until the end. And they form an opinion about Vilnius that its Borat home city :D :D :D

[@epicjava]

100% first part was filmed in naujininkai

[@gwar10ck]

Markučiai ten

[@sek0ne01]

as a 100% lithanian (with taste of humor), i find this commercial hillarious :)

[@manometras]

Oh, why can't they make something just normal, that would really attract more people to Vilnius? The shit exists in Lithuania near Belarus, including Vilnius, the normal things exist as well, but why do they have to show the shit and call it «just expectations, but not reality»? What if people will come and see that it is also reality? 😅

[@marcolinoermellino2345]

i just can’t wait to hear from HR about my application in Vilnius, sign the offer and be part of the Lithuanian citizen. Talking about that… In your opinion, are 3500€ gross per month enought to have a decent life in vilnius as a single person? is it a fair wage for an expat? i don’t pretend to live in a mansion or drive a ferrari, just to be able to afford a 1 bedroom house to rent, do my groceries, pay the bills and save for some trips. Thanks for anyone that will answer.

[@fatweeb1545]

That's well above the average wage in Vilnius so yes, you can live comfortably off that.

[@marytukas1]

Absolutely. I'm sure you could even save up some money :)

[@mottersscott]

For context, I'm earning 5k gross per month in Kaunas, and it's allowed us to let my wife have a year off of work, we've lived in a 4 bedroom detached house with about half a hectare of land, and live lavishly - at least 2 full family takeaway nights, not had to worry about last minute plans etc

[@aidasskruodys7313]

A very poor promotion!

[@m.a.d.m.5425]

This video is wild xD I love hate it. It’s so bad it’s good. You know?

[@xrokis3123]

if you compare vilnius vs kaunas vilnius is still gray city and kinda same as in ad

[@ree2453]

This ad is a national shame. A lot of foreigners won't even watch past 1 minute to see the "good part". If anything it just shows our insecurity. Could've presented the good part from the beginning and that's it. But some people always want to stand out, to exaggerate things. From "g spot of Europe" to this. That "creativity" sure is something.

[@Levoltas]

Nevertheless, Vilnius is still not so Western, and the further one goes from the centre, the more one feels the post-Soviet atmosphere, both socially and architecturally. So, this ad was like a cope, but I concede that Vilnius, together with the rest of Lithuania, has really changed a lot over the decades

[@manometras]

@@Levoltas, yeah, Vilnius won't be «so Western» for 100 more years, even if it won't become a part of Belarus / Russia in the next 5 years, in fact. But will this promotion atract many Westerners to Vilnius? It looks to me like another lazy ad showing Vilnius as a city from the past, but claiming it doesn't.

[@MindaugasSipkauskas]

Half a million waisted tax payers money.