Holiday culture campaign

The use/misuse of public money is always a sensitive issue particularly in these fiscally-constrained times. Alongside the so-called 'information' billboards posted by PiS and SLD ("Electioneering? Heavens forfend!") a spate of ads from Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage have popped up in the past week, urging Poles to 'take culture on vacation' (weź kulturę na wakacje), be it a woman taking a book on her seaside holiday, or a man taking his guitar into the mountains.

Very worthy - may the campaign indeed have the desired effect; may the billboards get through to a wider target audience than those who read or play music all year round. But I do have some slight niggles; how much taxpayers' money has the Ministry spent on this campaign? Will more holidaymakers load up with a stack of paperbacks before setting off for the beach than would otherwise have been the case?

Niggles excepted, I like this campaign - I can't imagine such billboards in the UK (even in the good times); I guess it would be construed as slightly condescending. Having blasted through a couple of hundred pages of John Steinbeck's East of Eden while in Dobra the other week, the billboard certainly resonates positively with me.

André Gide, anybody?

This time last year:
Last pics from last year's Dobra holiday

This time two years ago:
Conservatism, UK and Polish-style

This time three years ago:
Wheat and development

This time four years ago:
Beautiful July sunrise