What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

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What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby tungemål » Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:11 pm

What is truly Scandinavian? This commercial by SAS proved to be controversial and was in the news today. Subtitles in English, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.
https://youtu.be/ShfsBPrNcTI
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby Iversen » Thu Feb 13, 2020 10:04 am

I doubt that SAS/Scandinavian will get one single passenger more because of this piece of junk - but incompetent advertising professionals are not a Scandinavian speciality, they are found everywhere on the planet.
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby lichtrausch » Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:01 pm

Another entry from the "let's condescend to our target market" school of marketing, which also includes crowd favorites like Gillette's The Best Men Can Be.
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby Mista » Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:55 pm

Yes, and I believe I heard on TV yesterday that 70% of those who find this offensive are "normal people". Why are they offended? I suppose the reasons must be unsuitable for TV. Either that, or nobody is quite sure ...
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby lavengro » Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:08 pm

I found it a really odd commercial, and I'll confess to not being sure why. I did not find it offensive, but it certainly does not motivate me to book a seat on the airline involved, nor provide any additional motivation for me to visit the countries served by this airline, beyond the normal motivation I already have. (ETA: okay, on a second viewing, some of the shots of places and people were of interest and travel-motivation, but that aspect for me gets obscured by the "nothing new or original to see here" theme.)

I prefer the approach to advertising taken by Icelandair in some of its advertising, such as the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwLoOfloiOE

Who says the Vikings are gone? Turns out they have just moved on to engage in soccer (or "football" if you must) instead of rampaging and sacking villages.
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby fresh_air » Thu May 28, 2020 7:34 pm

Ridiculous. After living for a bit in Norway I can think of plenty of uniquely Scandinavian things. Most of them are a feeling of strange nostalgia I get inside, a sense of adventure, a warm comfort after a tiring day, or going out on an excessive 70 mile spring skiing trip and drinking yourself blind on moonshine with your friends after eating a bunch of kvikklunsj and burbot spit-roasted over a fire, that's a real Scandinavian day.
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Re: What is truly Scandinavian? (commercial by SAS)

Postby Cavesa » Thu May 28, 2020 8:15 pm

Ads like this are not a good thing. The same ideas ("let's travel more and bring home stuff and ideas to incorporate in our culture. and pay SAS while doing so") could have been presented better and in a less forced manner. This sort of discourse actually achieves the opposite. Instead of giving people the nice emotion of being connected to the rest of the world (to expand on its ideas and send others out again), it is condescending and likely to make some people feel bitter and insecure and threatened.

And except for a few words, there is nothing too related to language learning there.
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