PM Provides Cost Break-Down Of Pro-Government Ads

We now have an itemised account of where the government spent money on ads praising itself.

Last January, it came to light that the government had spent some 2.3 million ISK on ads praising itself in numerous media outlets. Kjarninn reports that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson has provided a cost break-down of how much money was spent where.

According to the PM’s response to a formal question on the matter posed by Social Democrat MP Katrín Júlíusdóttir, the government spent 800,000 ISK on an ad in the newspaper Fréttablaðið, and another 168,000 ISK on an ad on the paper’s website, Vísir.

Additional itemising is as follows:

Morgunblaðið: 459,000 ISK
MBL.is: About 70,000 ISK
RÚV: 197,700 ISK
Fréttatíminn: 193,000 ISK
DV: 135,000 ISK
DV.is: 94,000 ISK
Pressan: 33,000 ISK
Viðskiptablaðið: 139,994 ISK

The government’s ad campaign has raised criticism, with Social Democrat chairperson Árni Páll Árnason likening it to a “propaganda campaign”.

The ads were paid for with money allocated for the government’s operational budget. There are no plans to continue further advertising of the government’s alleged successes.