Cap, sweatshirt, distinctive logo from the run and president of the Republic in the function of live advertising during the Olympic Games. erstwhile netizens began to ask what actually Nowrocky was, it turned out that behind the brand there were acquainted names, a patent application made by a individual with the same name and surname as the president's sister and a company associated with an IPN lawyer. Formally, the President's Office washes its hands, but the deeper in the papers, the harder it is to believe the communicative of a complete deficiency of ties to the presidential merch.
Games jersey and abrupt net cleaning
The beginning of the communicative is simply a classic, refined in terms of even the smallest details of product placement. president Karol Nawrocki during the Olympics appears in pictures in a sweatshirt and cap with the inscription Nowrocky and known for his run logo. In the photographs he stands among Polish Olympians, smiles, everything looks like a fashion catalog material.
The same staff hits the Nowrocky clothing brand profile on social media. Importantly, any of them are photos taken by an authoritative presidential photographer, and thus created as a head of state. For a minute it is the perfect marketing fuel: here the president wears our things, so the logo automatically takes on prestige.
However, erstwhile questions begin to grow around the brand, the Nowrocky profiles begin quiet, but visible to attentive observers cleaning. Photographs by the presidential photographer disappear, the run slogan of Karol Nawrocki disappears, and even a photograph of the president with Donald Trump, which was inactive 1 of the strongest points of the image puzzle recently.
The spokesperson Rafał Leśkiewicz assures the editor of Virtual Poland that neither the president nor the law firm have any marketing or financial relation with the brand, and the activity itself is simply a private matter. Only the papers propose something much more complicated than the neutral distance of the state to private business.
Patent application, company and surname like sister
As we perceive in the podcast "In connection with the investigation", led by Mariusz Gierszewski from Radio ZET and Dominika Długosz from Newsweek, the first strong lead is the application to the Patent Office from November. A trademark corresponding to precisely what we see on the clothes sold by Nowrocky is reported: the same logo, the same style, the same game with the presidential name. The applicant is Nina Nawrocka. That's Karol Nawrocki's sister's name.
Of course, you can always formally say it's just a coincidence. However, a fewer days later another part of the puzzle appears. Nowrocky is registered in the National Court Register. The sole shareholder is 33-year-old entrepreneur Maciej Baratsun, formerly associated primarily with improvement activity.
The papers show that his erstwhile business projects were extinguished, the companies were removed from the register, and the only remaining trace is the joint ownership of a restaurant that has not submitted financial statements for respective years. In short: the past business achievements do not propose peculiar specialization in fashion or building clothing brands.
But the calendar of events seems to be a very neat sequence. First the patent application for the logo related to the image of Karol Nawrocki. A minute later, the registration of a company of the same name. Then the start of Nowrocky's social media profile, where the president and slogans from his run are coming to the fore.
Circle of friends. IPN lawyer, household boxer and run hamster
When you start digging into individual threads, a acquainted environment appears on the horizon. Maciej Baratsuna represents the tricity legal advisor Adam Soszyński erstwhile establishing the company. That name is not random in the orbit of Karol Nawrocki. He presently serves as the manager of the legal office at the Institute of National Memory, and he went there at the time erstwhile the president of the IPN was the current president. He had previously besides collaborated with him at the planet War II Museum.
Other people from the president's ellipse besides appear on stage. Boxer Adrian Domalewski, who has been associated with Karol Nawrocki for years, and presently training with his uncle Waldemar Nawrocki, promotes the brand in his social media. He puts Newrocky's shirt with the president's autograph on it, encourages fans to buy clothes with a presidential logo.
Nowrocky's offer itself seemed to be tailored to 1 peculiar customer. To be bought were mainly clothes with a logo reproducing the sign from the campaign, with a characteristic hamster associated with the presidential communicative and quotations from the 5 truths of Poles announced in 1938 by the Polish Union in Germany.
There would be nothing peculiar about it, if not for the fact that shortly after the registration of the company Karol Nawrocki publishes on social media an entry in which these 5 truths call it a beautiful manifesto of Polishness, combining them with the principles presented by Donald Tusk. In the symbolic sphere, it is simply a free marketing run for a brand that has just been born.
The store doesn't work, and the statement, alternatively of explaining, creates more and more questions
Interestingly, the store is presently down. Only a white screen appears erstwhile entering the net address. The brand owner decided to send Onet his message to the editorial board, explaining that the establishment of the store was his private initiative. The situation is simply a small more orderly. Maciej Bartasun emphasizes that neither the president nor his law firm are in any way connected with the marketing or financial company.
At the same time, it does not respond straight to the key question: whether and on what principles it cooperates with Nina Nawrocka, the author of the application for trademark protection. alternatively of circumstantial explanations, there is simply a general "private legal coverage" and "using markings according to their powers", which sounds more like a legal opinion than a transparent presentation, who actually has a brand built on the presidential image.
Bartasun besides argues that the usage of photographs from the President's Chancellery – with the company's logo applied – was allowed due to the fact that they had previously reached authoritative channels. The facts are, however, that materials rapidly vanish from Nowrocky's profiles, and the owner is only "considering" asking for consent if necessary. In parallel, the store informs about alleged attacks on the domain, which are to explain the site's inaccessibility.
Old mistakes, fresh installment
The Nowrocky case is not the first case erstwhile the head of state becomes part of a commercial puzzle. The communicative remembers even a loud episode with Alexander Kwasniewski, who appeared in the furniture advertisement erstwhile his brother-in-law opened the salon of the same brand. Over 20 years ago, this sparked a political storm and a long discussion about the limits of connecting the office of president to private business.
Later there was controversy about Andrzej Duda and the clothing brand Red is Bad, whose owner over time appeared in another noisy investigation into pandemic contracts. There were besides questions about who actually benefits financially from the fact that the president has been wearing circumstantial clothes and repeating circumstantial symbols for years.
In the case of Karol Nawrocki, the impression that the state is coming together with a private initiative is highly strong. The logo, which was first a sign of the campaign, becomes a commodity in the store. The hamster, which was to be part of the memetic envelope of the presidential image, hits the jerseys and sweatshirts. Historical slogans, utilized in political debate, immediately appear on products available for money.
Formally, the President's Office may repeat the mantra about the deficiency of marketing and financial relationship. The problem is that the public sees something else: the president in the clothes of a peculiar brand, household and friends in the background, a lawyer from old times and quietly disappearing pictures online. This is adequate to give the impression that individual is trying to build the office of the president with a private business, even if everything is cleverly listed on different names and companies.
Who made money on the logo of the Republic?
The most basic questions in this communicative stay unanswered. Who has the formal right to a sign whose name is President? Who collects profits from the sale of clothes in which the head of state appears? Is there any agreement regulating the usage of the image of Karol Nawrocki, or is everything based on informal arrangements?
For now, the brand owner Nowrocky has not decided to explain with whom precisely he has signed contracts, who is the real beneficiary of the financial project. He simply pointed out that Karol Nawrocki is not in any way connected with the marketing or financial activity of Nawrocky Sp. z o.o.
