German President's palace shown as Boarding School in ad, Ambassador calls out

The newspaper ad which reads, “Mega gathering of India’s Leading Boarding Schools Right Here in Delhi’ used the image of the seat of the German president

Sharing the advertisement on his official X handle (formerly Twitter), the German Ambassador 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.”

Bellevue Palace, seat of the German President in Berlin (Tobiasi0/Wikimedia Commons).(Tobiasi0/Wikimedia Commons)

The advertisement featured the 20th Edition of Premier Schools Exhibition to be conducted in New Delhi.

The tweet went viral with over 147k views and garnered mixed reactions.

“Thank God they didn't advertise Schloss Neuschweinstein as Indian Hogwarts. :-)” posted an X user.

In a series of events the German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, Dr Philipp Ackermann reacted to a wrong image of the seat of the German President in Berlin being used in a newspaper advertisement.

The newspaper ad which reads, “Mega gathering of India’s Leading Boarding Schools Right Here in Delhi’ used the image of the seat of the German president.

While some laughed it out, some have also thanked the German Ambassador for bringing this to public attention.

“We'd like to clarify that the image used in our advertisement was sourced from Shutterstock, a reputable stock image platform. As per Shutterstock's guidelines, paid subscribers can use their images for creative representation, advertisements, and other specified uses. The intent behind using this image was to depict a conceptual representation of a heritage boarding school and create a specific visual perception for our audience. Admittedly, we should have been more discerning about the background of the image. We sincerely regret any confusion or inconvenience this might have caused,” said the organiser of the event who also instructed the image to be taken off from promotions as soon as possible.