Lithuania’s tourism bureau apparently stepped over the line when it used pictures of other countries as pictures of Lithuania as part of its ‘Real is Beautiful’ campaign. The head of the bureau has been forced to resign.
They were caught out using photos of Slovakia and Finland, among other places. While the fakes have been taken down from the bureau’s Facebook page, they’ve been replaced with mocking photos and comments by visitors, such as these:
Of course, Lithuania is not the first to try out Fabulous Fakes, inadvertently or not. Greece (yes, that’s not Lithuania just above) was caught out a couple of years ago using pictures of Australia’s 12 Apostles rocks, and Rhode Island last year had to blush when it was tagged for using Reykjavik’s Harpa concert hall in its ads.
The title image is absolutely Lithuania, by the way. The bureau describes it: The spectacular Hill of Crosses in Šiauliai is a powerful reminder of the peaceful endurance of Lithuanian Catholics. The pilgrimage site currently boasts more than 200,000 crosses, many intricately carved by hand. It’s no wonder the ancient Lithuanian art of cross-crafting has found a place on UNESCO’s world heritage list.
