German ambassador calls out glaring error in ad about Indian boarding schools

A pic of Berlin’s Bellevue Palace was used in an ad about Indian boarding schools (Image credit: @AmbAckermann/Twitter)

A newspaper ad inviting Delhi parents to a “mega gathering of India’s leading boarding schools” got one thing wrong – instead of using a picture of an actual boarding school, the event organisers used a picture of an 18th century German palace and current seat of the German president.

The glaring error did not escape the German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, who called out the ad in a post shared on the microblogging platform X.

Dr Philipp Ackermann, the German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, pointed out that the advertisement of Premier Schools Exhibition used a picture of Bellevue Palace, located in Berlin. “Dear Indian parents - I found this in today’s newspaper. But this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were. There are good boarding schools also in Germany - but here, no child will be admitted,” he wrote.

Dear Indian parents - I found this in today’s newspaper. But this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were. There are good boarding schools also in Germany - but here, no child will be admitted . pic.twitter.com/ftbEeJk724

— Dr Philipp Ackermann (@AmbAckermann) September 30, 2023

Built in 1786 for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Bellevue Palace is located on the banks of the Spree. The present building is the 1959 reconstructed version and only one room - the Oval Saal (Oval Office) from Carl Gotthard Langhans - is original, according to the official website of Berlin.

Premier Schools Exhibition is an event organised by Afairs, an education fair organiser. According to the ad, the educational fair will take place in Delhi on October 1-2.

Ackermann’s tweet has found traction on Twitter, where many called out the exhibition organisers for using a misleading photograph.

“Disgraceful, to say the least! The sponsor of this ad should be taken to task. Clearly, no due diligence / proof reading was done before it was cleared for print,” wrote one X user. Another called it “the dangers of randomly copy-pasting the image of a good looking building.”