Tourists trying to flash a smile at the check-out girl at a German supermarket, or the Deutsche Bahn employee behind the train station counter are often met with blank stares.

Locals will claim that progress has been made in the German service mentality in recent years. But most, including the World Cup Organizing Committee, admit there's still a ways to go.

In early December Franz Beckenbauer and Co. launched a three million euro ($3.5 million) "friendliness" campaign designed to infuse the German service and tourism industry with the smiles needed to deal with the estimated one million fans that will travel to Germany for the World Cup. Sponsored by Economics and Technology Ministry and the Interior Ministry the campaign is designed to quash the image of Germany as a service wasteland, say organizers.

850 million reasons why

"We won't get this opportunity again for another 50 years so it's worth at least smiling for a few weeks," said Beckenbauer, the head of Germany's World Cup Organizing Committee at the launch of the campaign.

Organizers estimate that visitors will spend 850 million euros during the four-week World Cup, from June 9 to July 9. The tourism industry is expecting 5 million additional overnight stays in the 12 World Cup host cities.

"We need to use the chance the World Cup is giving us, so that people come again," said Economics Minister Michael Glos.

Berlin's efforts

Placards of smiling German personalities have already begun going up around the World Cup cities. Service and transportation industry personnel will be given special training to answer World Cup-related questions. Mini-competitions to select the strongest Bellboy or fastest waiter will be held in the coming months to push the idea of good service.

Berlin - home to some of the most notoriously gruff Germans - is embarking on additional measures. The city's public transport workers and taxi drivers are being schooled in basic English. Department stores are being encouraged by tourism officials to push bilingual employees on the shop floors to handle the vast array of languages.

"We have to improve friendliness to the point that even Berlin's policemen are smiling," said Glos