Greece Has A PR Problem. Can It Be Fixed?
Greece used to be a place with a positive global image: gorgeous islands, friendly people, great food and stunning history.
Then came the financial meltdown. Three years ago, when Greece became the first eurozone country to receive a multibillion-dollar bailout, many international media organizations portrayed Greeks as corrupt tax-evaders who liked to riot instead of work.
Over the past year, Greeks have been portrayed as the impoverished victims of incompetent politicians, corrupt oligarchs and cruel Europeans bent on poisoning them with austerity.
"Greeks were either rioters throwing Molotov cocktails or homeless people begging for food," Ismini Spachou, an Athenian who works in development aid, tells NPR. "The Greek crisis is now a product, and what sells is drama."
But drama has also drained the country of context, she says, turning it into a caricature of stereotypes. So last year, after stewing at the incessant criticism of Greece, Spachou joined Omikron Project, a small grassroots group that is offering an alternative view of the country with animated videos, advertisements and social media.
The videos feature a character named Alex who's assumed to be "a lazy, cheating, ungrateful, helpless, corrupt, violent, rude, racist, tax-evading, trouble-making, thieving vandal that lives with his mother."
"He's supposed to deserve everything that's coming to him," says Mehran Khalili, a British-Iranian political communications consultant who's married to a Greek, lives in Athens and narrates the Alex videos. "But not if you consider the facts."
Countering The Stereotype
For example, Khalili says, Greeks actually work longer hours than anyone else in Europe: about 42.2 hours per work compared to, say, about 35.6 in Germany, according to Eurostat. Greeks also retire later than most Europeans and also have lower salaries and fewer vacation days.
And while violent protests shook central Athens in 2012, he says, the rioters were a tiny subsection of a much larger group of demonstrators who marched peacefully.
"Many people I know say, 'Let's just fix what's wrong and then work on the image later,' " he says. "But that's enormously damaging. Think of the economic cost, especially in tourism, as the summer is coming up. Do you want to visit a country when you're being told endlessly how messed up it is?"
It's not the first time concerned citizens have tried to rescue Greece's image. Organizations like GoodNewsGR spread upbeat news about Greece through a website and Twitter feed.
And in 2011, when the corrupt, lazy, violent Greek meme was at full throttle, a Greek-South African marketing strategist named Peter Economides sought to improve the nation's damaged self-esteem through a campaign called Yinetai, which means "It is possible."
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