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Sex, propaganda and video -- EU gets mixed reviews in Youtube debut
The European Commission's latest attempt to raise the EU's profile has met with mixed reviews with accusations that a new collection of videos on the Internet are "propaganda" and even "pornography".
The EU's executive arm on Friday launched a special page on the US Internet video sharing site YouTube dubbed EU Tube to use "new and innovative ways of informing people on the activities of the European Union," according to a statement.
By Tuesday, the page had already won a wide if not always flattering following of viewers after receiving mentions in blogs and British tabloids, although mostly due to a sole video.
The clip in question features 44-seconds of sex scenes snipped from various different European films supported by EU money such as 'Amelie from Montmartre' and 'Breaking the Waves'.
Although the clip -- which had been viewed more than 280,000 times by Tuesday -- has drawn attention to EU Tube, it has also won its fair share of sarcasm.
"So at last the Commission has found a way to appeal to the general public: vulgar (at best), pornographic (at worst) film clips," one visitor to the page said.
In the face of such criticism, Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said: "We think that we can be proud in the European Union about strong European cinema."
However, another visitor to the site concluded: "What a waste of money, putting up these ... what I can say, propaganda videos."
The Commission defended the initiative saying that posting the videos on the site cost next to nothing.
Other clips the Commission has posted on the page show archive images from important moments in the EU's history to a cartoon about helping save the planet, which also did not escape scorn.
"It was only a matter of time before the EU found a new way of humiliating itself," another visitor wrote in a comment.
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