The Hungarian government might want to check the internet backstory of the couple fronting its campaign encouraging people to have more children.
A new billboard campaign features the same man and woman from the "distracted boyfriend" meme, which, as lots of people are aware, are not the perfect example of a loving happy couple.
The people on the billboard, promoting a new scheme that gives tax and loan benefits for big families, are featured in the stock photo set taken by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem in 2015, which went viral in 2017.
The happy couple gracing the Hungarian government’s campaign advertising its new family policy is already famous on the internet...and not for being madly in love.
The billboards have recently gone up in Budapest, and went viral on Wednesday after a local resident took a photo in Zugló, the 14th district of the Hungarian capital, and posted it on Facebook.
“I was driving my kids to school and my son noticed this new billboard — it’s the Hungarian government’s new ad for their pro-family benefit programs," the man who took the photo — who didn't want to be named — told BuzzFeed News over Facebook Messenger. "And my son immediately said, ‘This is the couple from that meme.’"
The unfortunate photo choice was also picked up by independent media in Hungary after the Facebook post.
@VALERIEin140 @katiejmbaker
The man who took the photo, a Hungarian software entrepreneur, said he was not a fan of the new policy, saying it was designed to boost Hungary's population as an alternative to immigration, and had a "keep Hungary Hungarian" vibe to it.
Bizarrely, this is not the only billboard-related story in Hungary right now.
Anti–European Union billboards featuring George Soros and the head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, were covered up this week during a visit to Hungary by the leader of the European People's Party, a group of mostly conservative parties in the EU's Parliament. Juncker himself is a member of the EPP.
Some EPP members are seeking to expel Fidesz, the ruling party of Hungary. An ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had said the billboards would be taken down and replaced...with new posters promoting the government's family action plan.