Argentina Uses Ads In Push To Regain Falklands

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Argentina is once again using advertising to push its agenda to regain control of the Falkland Islands from the UK.

The Argentine government placed an open-letter ad in two UK newspapers today, including The Guardian and The Independent, “inviting” the UK to participate in negotiations concerning the Islands’ future sovereignty.

Today’s print ad follows a controversial TV spot that Argentina created in the lead-up to the London Olympics last May. It featured an Argentinian athlete training on the Falklands. In that ad, the athlete is seen frowning at certain British landmarks; the spot ends with a tagline: “to compete on British soil, we train on Argentine soil.”

Y&R Buenos Aires produced the TV spot for Argentina, much to the dismay and chagrin of WPP CEO Martin Sorrell. He said at the time he was appalled and embarrassed by the spot, widely seen as an effort to politicize the games. Sorrell said an investigation was undertaken to learn how the agency came to produce the ad.

It was not clear what, if anything, came of the investigation, or if Y&R was involved in the making or placing of the print ads. A rep for the agency did not immediately respond to an email query.

The ad, in the form of an open letter addressed to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, began with the charge that the UK had “forcibly stripped” Argentina of the islands on Jan. 3, 1833 in a “blatant exercise of 19th-century colonialism.”

The countries went to war over the islands in 1982, with the UK prevailing. But Argentina has persistently demanded the return of the islands. “The Question of the Malvinas Islands [the Argentinian name for the Falklands] is also a cause embraced by Latin America and by a vast majority of peoples and governments around the world that reject colonialism,” the ad stated. It was signed by Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The UK’s position has been that the inhabitants of the Falklands should determine their own sovereignty, a position that was restated today by Cameron’s press office. The largely pro-British Falkland Islanders are scheduled to vote on a sovereignty referendum in March.

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2 comments on "Argentina Uses Ads In Push To Regain Falklands ".

1. Nick D from ___
   

   commented on: January 4, 2013 at 10:28 a.m.
   This is not an easy topic at all, and there's lots of pitfalls in reporting on it. But technically, "regain control of the Falkland Islands" would suggest that they were ever Argentinian. Which is... disputed.
2. Brit Bob from Self
   

   commented on: January 4, 2013 at 1:35 p.m.
   Argentina has never owned the Falkland Islands so they cannot be returned. Vernet set up a colony on the Falklands with the permission of the British but was asked to leave when he switched allegiance to Argentina and turned his hand to piracy. The majority of the settlers remained under the British flag. The various UN resolutions have asked that Britain and Argentina solve the dispute but in doing so consider the wishes of the Falkland Islanders. Legally and morally the Falkland Islands are British. www.falklandshistory.org/

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