Choose your future: EU tries to raise turnout with viral campaign
Officials are hoping to raise voter numbers for first time since 1979 European elections
A bawling newborn is lifted on to the chest of its exhausted mother. A tear slips down a father’s face. The camera cuts to another baby, revealing the moment of its arrival in the world. Shock, wonder, joy and relief flash across parents’ faces.
It is a novel way to get people to vote in this week’s European elections. The three-minute video is a departure for EU communications, which have often relied on checklists about abolishing roaming charges. The birth scenes are real, although some moments before and after were staged. Fifteen couples, from Greece, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Hungary, took part in the film.