The advert, printed in popular newspaper De Telegraaf last September, helped win 300,000 signatures in the Netherlands calling for a referendum on an EU trade treaty with Ukraine. The campaign was driven by Eurosceptics, using a new law in the Netherlands to call for a national vote.
Funding for the £31,000 advert was given by the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE), and UKIP leader Nigel Farage admitted that he brokered the deal, although there is no suggestion of any impropriety on his part.