Czech Dream

Two students from the Prague film school hire one of the country's leading advertising agencies for a job: a large campaign for the opening of a new hypermarket. The hypermarket does not exist and never will. The campaign is run in full, with radio and television spots, posters, photographs of invented products, a jingle, a website and newspaper advertisements. On opening day, all that stands on an empty field is an enormous façade. The real subject is not the shop but advertising itself: the agency executives explain to camera, with complete candour, how the campaign was constructed and what people can be brought to believe. The experiment caused a large argument in the Czech Republic; filming the people who were deceived without their consent drew serious criticism, while the makers argued that making exactly that reaction visible was the point. The film also draws an open parallel with the country's European Union accession campaign, running at the same time.