Spain's Chamber of Commerce has paid 484,000 euros for an advertising campaign to counter the bad publicity the country has received on the Catalan issue and to demonstrate that "Spain is a consolidated democracy". The Chamber is undertaking an international image campaign in foreign media and foreign business organizations to defend the idea that "Spain has rule of law", as Madrid newspaper El Mundo reports.
A spokesperson for this Spanish business association explained to the newspaper that the reason for the move is "to reinforce the image of Spain and encourage the arrival of investments". The Spanish Chamber of Commerce, under its president Josep Lluís Bonet, has selected the British agency Brunswick to explain to would-be investors that "Spain is a democracy that had to place Catalonia under direct rule in the face of an illegal act of secession".
The brief given to the agency includes the requirement "to combat the reputational damage suffered in the eyes of international public opinion, specifically in the economic area, as a consequence of the Catalan independence process". The Chamber of Commerce spokesperson rejected the idea that they are taking this initiative on instructions from the Spanish government, recalling the law governing the Chamber's activity which obliges the organisation to "defend the general interests of commerce, industry, services, and trade".
The countries considered to be most important for this publicity campaign are Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom - in all three of which there are exiled members of the Catalan government residing. The campaign is planned to continue for seven months, until the end of 2018.