"All kinds of things are advertised, but this is reprehensible": Minister on controversial Megatrend billboard

Photo: Tanjug/Sava Radovanović

Minister of Education Branko Ruzic believes that the message displayed on a Megatrend private university's billboard reading, "A good lawyer knows the law. A smarter one takes the judge to lunch," inviting students to enroll at this university, is inappropriate and should be condemned, but adds that the Ministry does not influence how higher education institutions market themselves.

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"We are not in a position to influence billboards of any higher education institution, especially private ones, and choose the taste of those who want to attract students with such advertisements. My personal and the assessment of the Ministry is that a billboard with such a message is not appropriate," Ruzic said, reports Tanjug.

Reacting to the statement that the message was insulting to the profession and promoting corruption, he replied that he agrees with that.

"It is not appropriate, it should be condemned. The law is clear, I abide by the law and the rule of law. All kinds of things are advertised in this country. The message is reprehensible," he said and added that he does not want to go into what the motives and wishes of those behind it are.

"Maybe they had the noblest wishes, but with such messages... It's like when they say that the road to hell is paved with best intentions," he said.

Responding to Megatrend representatives saying that the tone of the message was "joking," he replied, "I'm not interested in what they said."

In response to numerous public objections to the controversial text on the billboard, Megatrend told Tanjuga earlier that they made the right move and that 80 candidates took the entrance exam in the last four days.

The director of the Marketing and Public Relations Department, Nemanja Kadic, said that the message was "borrowed" from Mark Twain, and told the critics of the ad: "You don't know anything about marketing."

(Telegraf.rs)