“Czech Baltic advert”? Not Czech and not Baltic

“Charming”, “Beautiful. It is a fact that when I was driving to the seaside I saw a lot of cars from CZ”; “Yes, there are a lot of Czechs driving to the Baltic Sea”; “Have a nice rest” – Polish internet users comment on the recording distributed on the web, which they perceive as an advertisement for Poland and the Baltic coast made by Czechs. Because that is how the film was described on the profile of an anonymous user of the X service, who published the recording on August 5, writing: “Czech advertisement for the Polish coast. And now I will ask those malcontents who did not like S3 to stop whining about everything”. Fasting this one generated one million views and over 1,000 shares in three days.

The film lasts over two minutes. It features a Czech-speaking couple driving to the Polish seaside. “We, Czechs, may not have access to the sea, but we are determined,” says the protagonist of the recording at the beginning. He explains that until now he and his partner had been driving 10 hours to the Adriatic Sea in Croatia, but “this year he thought that our neighbours have the sea.” Then he notices that the route to the sea “leads like a thread from the very border.” “So I pulled onto the S3 and off we go. And what views. Here, a brand new, picturesque section of Balty – Kamienna Gora,” he adds. At this point, the recording shows a tunnel, shown from a bird's eye view, through which the couple is driving. The film includes shots showing beautiful Polish landscapes, but there are also shots of the car – with a pink inflatable flamingo on the roof – driving through the tunnel. The couple finally reaches the beach on the Baltic Sea. “Closer, more beautiful. And you can always get along with Poles,” sums up the Czech.

“Czech advert for the Polish coast. Neighbours happily drive to the Baltic Sea on our brand new expressways” – wrote Polish internet users who shared the video. “In Poland they noticed a Czech advert showing the newly built S3 expressway towards the Baltic Sea” – he commented recording Andreas Papadopulos, Czech correspondent of CT24 television in Poland and the Baltic countries. Entries about “Czech advertising” were given on Wykop, the frame was shown on Demotywatory.

The film became so popular online that it was described by, among others, the National Geographic website. On August 7, it published article entitled: “This is how Poland was shown in a Czech advert. Our beaches were compared to Croatian ones”. The text reads: “Czechs are happy to come to Poland not only by train, but also by private cars. This form of travelling around our country is to become even more popular thanks to the construction of the S3 expressway. The opening of the Lower Silesian section of the route was honoured with a promotional spot”.

But now the title article The slogan reads: “Is this how Czechs see Poland? Watch the video that's taking the internet by storm”, and the text was supplemented with the sentence: “The opening of the Lower Silesian section of the route was honored with a promotional spot prepared by PORR SA, a construction company operating in Poland for over 30 years, the General Contractor of the S3 route section on Bolków-Kamienna Góra”.

Indeed, some attentive Internet users have already written in discussions under the film that the PORR company logo is visible in the recording, that it is an “advertisement of the Polish branch of the Austrian company” and that “it is the company that carried out the investments shown in the film”.

So is this a “Czech ad”? And does it advertise the “Polish coast”? We checked with the contractor.

The recording can be viewed on PORR SA profiles. on social media. The description is humorous: “Ahoy! Czechs officially with access to the sea” – because PORR was the general contractor of an important section of the S3 expressway, which is supposed to connect the Polish-Czech border with the Baltic Sea coast. On Wednesday, July 31, 2024 put into service A 16-kilometer section from Bolków to Kamienna Góra in Lower Silesia. Only the northern sections between Troszyn and Świnoujście in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship are missing to complete the S3 route.

The recently completed section of the S3 in Lower Silesia gained notoriety, among other things, because it includes the longest non-urban road tunnel in Poland – 2.3 kilometres long. It is the drive through it and aerial shots that we see in the film with the Czech couple.

We asked the PORR SA spokeswoman what the story behind this recording is – who came up with the idea, who made it. Marta Czerwińska explained in an interview with Konkret24: the creators and makers of the clip are not Czechs, but Poles. She explains:

– We decided to use the great interest in the Baltic Sea among Czech tourists and invite Czech heroes to the story about the newly opened section of S3. So we can say that the script was written by life. It is a compliment for us that many people think that the Czechs are responsible for this advertisement. But no: it is the Poles – emphasizes Marta Czerwińska.

PORR was founded in Austria, but currently operates on many foreign markets, including Poland and the Czech Republic. Marta Czerwińska explains that the Czech company was not involved in creating the advert. When asked why the profile entry with the film was marked with Ředitelství silnic a dálnic (ŘSD), the Czech equivalent of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, the PORR spokeswoman replied: – The film was made on a 16-kilometre section of the route that has just been put into service, entirely on the Polish side. We marked ŘSD on Facebook, but that was only to interest them in our material. Especially since the S3 route currently reaches the Polish-Czech border, and the Czechs are responsible for its continuation.

It's true: the extension of the S3 route on the Czech side is to be the D11 motorway, but the last two sections are still unfinished: Jaroměř-Trutnov and Trutnov-state border. Construction of the second began in December 2023, but the start date for the first is still unknown. That's why the hero of a popular video about the newly opened section of the S3 route says: “If they try hard here in the Czech Republic, the Greeks will also be able to get to Sweden through here.”

For now, the team of the Polish construction company has tried to create such a “Czech advertisement” for their investment that even Poles believed that it was about the “Polish coast”.

READ MORE: “The most picturesque section” of the expressway in Poland open to traffic