US First lady Melania Trump visits with children at a youth centre at Andrews Air Force Base. Photo / AP
US First lady Melania Trump visits with children at a youth centre at Andrews Air Force Base. Photo / AP
Billboards featuring Melania Trump and the slogan "just imagine how far you can go with a little bit of English" around Croatia have been removed after she threatened to sue.
The billboards were part of a marketing campaign by a private English language school in capital Zagreb.
They aimed to persuade Croats to learn English by reminding them of the Slovenian-born US first lady's personal experience.
Cars drive past a billboard depicting the first lady Melania Trump and advertising a language school displayed in Zagreb, Croatia on Friday. Photo / AP
But Mrs Trump did not accept what was apparently meant to be a joke about her English, spoken with a heavy accent.
Her Slovenian lawyer demanded that the billboards, showing the former model delivering a speech standing before a fluttering American flag, be immediately removed.
"I'm satisfied with the fact that the school admitted that they violated the law and that they are ready to remove the billboards and (Facebook) ads," lawyer Natasa Pirc-Musar told The Associated Press. "We are still analysing possible further legal steps."
Mrs Trump has hired the law firm to protect her image, which has appeared on various products in her native Slovenia, including cakes, underwear and tourism advertisements.
Ms Pirc-Musar said that the Croatian school has apologised for the billboards, but that the statement also needs to be published by the Croatian and Slovenian state news agencies.
Cars drive past the empty advertising space from which a billboard depicting the first lady Melania Trump was removed after legal action was threatened. Photo / AP
"We are very sorry that the billboards were misunderstood as something intended to mock the US first lady," Ivis Buric, a spokeswoman for the school, American Institute, said. "It was meant to be something positive, to show her as a role model."
Mr Buric admitted that the short advertising campaign turned out to be "very successful" because of the wide publicity it received both locally and internationally. She said that the school intends to put up new billboards, this time without Mrs Trump's image.
Mrs Trump was born in neighbouring Slovenia as Melanija Knavs. She left Slovenia in her 20s to pursue an international modelling career before meeting Donald Trump at a Fashion Week party in New York in 1998.
