The participants in Spain's Big Brother reality TV show, having been ordered to read the proposed European Union constitution, this week took turns explaining it to a Polish girl who speaks no Spanish.

The "very worthwhile pedagogic effort", as Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega, deputy prime minister, put it, is part of a broadening government campaign to enlist football and television personalities to promote interest the constitution, which will be submitted to a referendum on February 20.