M&C Saatchi Sydney, the advertising agency that won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions 2008 international advertising festival with an advert that described Bulgarians as having “fingers like large salamis”, has apologised for the ad.

"My sincere apologies to you, your fellow Bulgarians and your 1300 year proud history. (...) This was never meant to be taken seriously," M&C Saatchi executive creative director Ben Welsh told The Sofia Echo in an email.

The agency has received a number of emails from Bulgaria, "from the graciously concerned to the outright threatening", and was answering all of them individually, he said.

The advertising spot, titled “Bulgarians”, was made by M&C Saatchi Sydney for Australian shirt-maker Herringbone, advising to “never buy a shirt made by a Bulgarian. For the finest detail only buy shirts made by tailors with small hands”.

The print campaign was secondary to a cinema commercial and did not attract much attention in Australia, although there was some, Walsh said.

In a separate apology attached to the same email, the unnamed writer of the campaign said  that the "one-off advertisement was never in any way meant to be an attack on the people of Bulgaria or their ability to sew fine garments."

"The advertising campaign is based on the obviously fabricated premise that Herringbone have a tailor with small, mouse-like hands.  The logical conclusion to this admittedly absurd notion is that large hands might therefore make it difficult to sew with such detail.

"The idea that Bulgarians have larger hands than other nationalities was intended to be taken as a joke, never seriously.

"However we do now see, especially out of context, that this particular execution could have been taken the wrong way. In hindsight we do see and regret our bad judgment.
We sincerely apologise to those who have taken offence."