Argentina is humiliated as International Olympic Committee blasts Buenos Aires over Falklands advert
The Government has accused Argentina of being insensitive and disrespectful after it broadcast a television advert showing an Olympic hopeful training on a British war memorial in the Falklands.
Briton Sir Martin Sorrell condemns his OWN firm for Argentinian TV advert that shows athlete training for Olympics on the steps of war memorial in the Falklands
In a highly-provocative move that ties the ongoing dispute over the islands with this summer’s Games, the 90-second advert produced by the country’s presidency says the athlete is preparing for London 2012 on “Argentine soil”.Watch the video
It shows Argentina hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg running in the Falklands capital Port Stanley and exercising on the island’s Great War Memorial, which honours British sailors who died in the First World War.
The Foreign Office criticised the advert as an attempt to exploit and politicise the Games.
A British tycoon last night condemned his own firm for making an Argentine advertisement surreptitiously shot in the Falklands to claim ownership of the islands.
Sir Martin Sorrell’s surprise intervention came after Foreign Secretary William Hague attacked the film as a ‘stunt. Sir Martin said he was ‘appalled and embarrassed’ by the ‘totally unacceptable’ advert, and that apologies had been issued.