Slovenia Commercializing Melania Trump Even As Croatian Billboard Featuring Her Taken Down

Billboards featuring the U.S. first lady, Melania Trump with the slogan "just imagine how far you can go with a little bit of English" were removed Tuesday from Zagreb, Croatia's capital. They were taken off after Melania's lawyer threatened to sue the private English language school which had put up the billboards as part of a marketing campaign, reports said.

Through the billboards, that had images of Melania standing before the American flag delivering a speech, the school tried to persuade Croats by reminding them of the Slovenian-born U.S. first lady's experiences, CBS News reported.

Melania's Slovenian lawyer asked the school, who posted the billboards, to immediately remove them.

"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. However, the lawyer added that they are still analyzing further legal steps against the billboards.

Meanwhile, Ivis Buric, a spokeswoman for the school, said that the billboards were never intended to mock Melania. "It was meant to be something positive, to show her as a role model," Buric added, the AP reported.

Nevertheless, the billboards did turn out be "very successful" for the school, as Buric admitted, because the short advertising campaign received wide publicity both locally and internationally. She clarified that new billboards will be put up again, however, this time, it would be without Melania's image.

This was not the first instance where people cashed in on Melania's image; in her Slovenian hometown, Sevnica, there are several Melania-related destinations where local guides take their tourists. In 2016, Sevnica witnessed a 30 percent increase in tourism, according to New York Daily News.

Several tour guides in the 5,000-person hamlet offer Melania tours which take tourists to the first lady's childhood home, her school, the children's clothing factory where her mother worked and other sites linked to Melania, the Daily News reported.

Some tour guides also take tourists to the home owned by Melania's parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs who spend most of their time in the U.S.

"A lot of people are coming from Europe, Japan, China and the U.S.," Mayor Srecko Ocvirk said. "From an anonymous little town, we are now on the world tourist map," according to NPR.

One local cafe also serves "Melanija torte" — a white chocolate mousse covered in edible gold — and a First Lady Apple Pie, NPR reported.

"We wanted to do something that is a mix of America and Sevnica," said Maja Kozole Popadic, whose family owns the bakery.

There is also the First Lady wine on sale at the town’s 900-year-old castle that costs $33.48 (€27.90) a bottle, a report said.

After Donald Trump became the president, one of Melania's former schoolmate, Urša Mravlje, who stays about 50 miles away from Sevnica, in Slovenia's largest city, Ljubljana, created a soap titled "Melanija" for her aromatherapy store, Aromatica, Vogue reported in January.

The handmade violet and lavender soap bar costs $4.81 and consists of all-natural ingredients, and smells like magnolias. Mravlje told Vogue in an email that the soap, which has been popular among locals and tourists alike, does not just share the same name of the U.S. first lady but also embodies herself.

"I remember Melania from high school. She was one year ahead of me," Mravlje wrote. "She was good-looking and natural like our soap."

Melania, who is still known as Melanija Knavs to many in Sevnica, hired a local law firm last year to caution people against using her name or associating any products with her without consent.