Amsterdam withdraws Obama/Putin “Kiss Me, I’m Drunk” posters

DutchAmsterdam.nl — One of three posters on which foreign political leaders promote this year’s Queen’s Day Celebration in Amsterdam has been voluntarily withdrawn.

Promotional poster designed to attract foreigners to the Queen’s Day celebrations in Amsterdam

The photoshopped poster in which US President Barack Obama and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin walk side by side wearing “Kiss me, I’m Drunk” T-shirts will not be seen on billboards and other promotional material.

Charles van Renesse of Amsterdam Partners, the city’s promotion firm, says there was no pressure from either America or Russia to withdraw the poster. According to Van Renesse on afterthought the text on the T-shirt may not have been the best choice, given the fact that Vladimir Putin is a teetotaller.

Two other posters — one depicting a bikini-clad Hillary Clinton in a festive mood, and one showing Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Nicolas Sarkozy of France in a friendly embrace — can be viewed on some 200 billboards throughout the city starting today.

Free postcards showing the Obama/Putin poster have already been distributed to cafes in Amsterdam, and are expected to become collectors’ items.

Amsterdam Partners did receive complaints from the French embassy, which thought the Berlusconi/Sarkozy poster was in poor taste.

The poster campaign is meant to promote Amsterdam annual Queen’s Day Celebration — the world’s best party — to foreign tourists. The commotion surrounding the posters has not gone unnoticed in the foreign press. According to calculations by the advertising firm of Amsterdam Partners, the story thus far has resulted in publicity valued at four million Euro.

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