In the Polish alphabet there are 9 special marks: a, c, e, l, n, ó, s, z, z. They help us with the correct understanding of words, their meaning and pronunciation. Due to the development of new technologies we use them less and less: up to 53% of Poles do not apply Polish signs due to logic, thanks to which – as believed by the surveyed we conducted – messages are written way faster.

But if we don’t add a dash or a tail, we may create a new word or even change the meaning of a whole sentence! Some words without Polish marks sound stupid others make no sense. People may write ROBIC LASKE (to give a blowjob) instead of ROBIC LASKE (to do a favour) just to give you an example.

This will lead to the disappearance of the Polish language and a weakened role of transferring Polish cultural inheritance from generation to generation.

To show Poles how strange and silly their language may become, for one day we deleted diacritics from all media. Literally. It is as if you woke up in a country where every media around you speaks in a bizarre sounds-almost-like-your-mother-tongue. The campaign involved 6 music bands, 34 radio stations, 250 portals, 21 newspapers and 16 TV stations. With a budget of 3000 Euros, we received free media coverage worth 500000 Euros. In one day we reached 24 out of 38 millions of Poles. You see, POLISH IS DIFFERENT. Let's keep it this way.

Our research shows that more then half of Poles don’t use Polish marks in text messages and emails. The goal of our campaign was make them aware they are killing their language. Our target group was a 38 million nation. 38.542.000 to be precise.

On The International Day of Mother Tongue Polish signs disappeared from television, radio stations, newspapers and the internet.

One day of the campaign resulted in more than a million queries and our website was shared almost 3000 times in just a few hours!

The action involved: 6 top music bands, 34 radio stations, 250 portals, 21 newspapers and 16 TV stations.

We invested about 3 000 euros in the campaign. The value of the free publicity we received, was about 500 000 euros.

In just one day we caught the attention of more than a half the population of Poland – 24.000.000 people.

Although it was a local, untranslatable campaign, it managed to catch the attention of the international media. The Guardian, The Washington Post, ABC news, The Sun, Boston Herald, Japan Times, Shanghai Daily - to name just a few - mentioned it in their internet issues.

First we chose campaign’s ambassador – a famous professor from the Council of the Polish Language. Next we conducted a survey. Then we came up with a simple radio idea. 6 Polish music bands agreed to record their hits without Polish marks for free. Songs were uploaded to a web page with an address containing diacritics (www.jezykpolskijestae.pl). With the material ready we hit radio stations. When they agreed to air it, it was like a start of an avalanche. We invited journalists for a press conference. More and more media joined the campaign. We managed to persuade them to use incorrect Polish. As a result it involved 34 radio stations, 250 portals, 21 newspapers and 16 TV stations, all speaking in a funny way. With a budget of 3000 Euros we reached 24.000.000 people. All in the period limited to 24 hours.

Polish is one of the most difficult languages in the world, it's spelling is a nightmare but it is ours. We have nine special marks called diacritics, used for the correct understanding of words, their meaning and pronunciation. Today Polish is threatened by the tendency to avoid diacritics. More than 50% of Poles don’t use them in SMSs and emails. This will lead to disappearance of the language and a weakened role of transferring cultural inheritance from generation to generation. The Council of the Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences asked us to draw attention to this issue.

The core of our strategy was the belief that to achieve all the desired results we need to show the problem of using proper language in light, entertaining and inspiring to action way. The idea was simple: let’s exclude Polish marks from all media.

Our goal was to show Poles what would happened if all the special marks disappeared from television, newspapers and radio for one day. We found out that the most impressive way to show how Polish sounds without diacritical signs is to remove them from songs. We invited Polish music stars to record their greatest hits without dots and tails. Thank to that idea people around the country could hear their favourite, well-knows songs sound strange, funny and in some moments incomprehensibly.

Other media soon joined and made every Pole feel surrounded by the strange language during the whole day.