In recent weeks, Tallinn’s streets, among others, have been rather heavily lined with campaign posters featuring young people and the text “We protect what matters most,” accompanied by either “Free Speech,” “Free Media,” or “Free Science.”
This is a campaign designed to raise awareness of the core values of democracy, with its main target group being young people aged 18–30, Elis Paemurd, deputy head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia, told ERR.
If anyone wonders why young Europeans would need such a reminder, studies and surveys show that young people in Europe are not sufficiently aware of the benefits and freedoms that come with living in a democratic system, nor of the fact that these are under increasing pressure.
“The aim of the campaign is to remind young people that democracy is not a political abstraction, to highlight the freedoms that come with democracy — freedom of speech, freedom of the media, and academic freedom — and at the same time to encourage reflection on the fact that these freedoms are not self‑evident but must be safeguarded and defended,” Paemurd said.
The issue is not limited to young people alone: for example, according to a Eurobarometer flash survey from July 2024, only 38 percent of Europeans consider respect for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law to be the European Union’s main strength, Paemurd noted.
“Several other studies, mainly targeting young people, have shown that democracy is not always young people’s first choice as a form of governance, and it is often felt that the European Union is not sufficiently democratic,” she added.
€33 million spent on the campaign across Europe
The campaign is not intended only for people in Estonia but for all residents of the European Union, and it launched in all member states on April 20, except in Cyprus, where it will begin at the end of May due to elections.
Paemurd said that the budget for the creative concept and production — that is, costs incurred up to the campaign launch on April 20 — was approximately €3 million. The media budget is €30 million and covers translation and publication costs in 27 member states.
The campaign is not funded separately by each member state; instead, it was commissioned and is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Communication. “Running centralized campaigns is standard practice within the Commission,” Paemurd said.
The campaign is financed from the European Commission’s communication budget, meaning it is not carried out directly on a member‑state basis, and the distribution of costs therefore does not provide a complete picture, she added.
The campaign has been prepared over a long period and is based in part on various studies, including Eurobarometer surveys as well as research by think tanks, Paemurd said.
Creative director: The posters are simplistic and impersonal
Although few question the importance of the message, the European Commission’s broad campaign has received quite a bit of criticism in Estonia, mainly because of its simplistic and clichéd execution.
Villem Valme, creative director at the advertising agency Tank, told ERR that as a creative solution, the posters are boring and impersonal. “Just like the European Union itself — and ads usually reflect the client. Good advertising should also have some surprising idea, and that’s missing here,” he remarked.
A definite downside is that the same solution is intended for all of Europe, and the result of such an approach is rather alienating.
“Because this is a 100 percent adapted campaign that is apparently done in all member states, there is no connection to the local context. There’s no sense that we ourselves here in Estonia are the European Union, and that this poster was made to speak to us and our young people,” Valme said.
“As an advertising professional, I would certainly think about how these inherently 100 percent positive values could have been presented in a way that doesn’t feel like heavy‑handed propaganda,” he added — suggesting that involving agencies familiar with local conditions would help a great deal.
“I would definitely like to feel that this campaign was created for me here in Estonia in 2026. But it’s always easy to comment from the sidelines; as a practitioner I know how few opportunities agencies are sometimes given to do more. The issues are important, and if the European Union were to reach the point where local agencies could think along more substantively and propose solutions, I’m convinced we would achieve results that resonate better,” Valme said.
According to Valme, the positive aspect of the campaign’s execution is that at least the message is clear: we stand for democratic values.
“Clarity of message may seem like a basic requirement, but especially in public‑sector campaigns, bureaucratic processes often result in posters ending up on the street with a message that is either unclear, overly bureaucratic, or both at once. Outdoor media is a three‑second medium, and in this case, comprehension is fine,” he said.
In response to speculation on social media that the images were created using artificial intelligence, Valme disagreed.
“This appears to be a fairly expensive photo shoot, and it is not AI‑generated—I’m certain of that,” he said.
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