There has been an interesting discussion about marketing tactics that I've been observing in an online forum recently. It makes me wonder if advertisers are setting out deliberately to create controversy for marketing purposes. One person used the wonderful Oscar Wilde quip about "it is better to be talked about badly than not at all" as an illustration of the sort of mentality that seems to be in vogue these days.

This line of thought was triggered by some recent ad campaigns both here and in Australia that have stirred controversy, much to the obvious delight of the advertisers. You'd think that they would be touchy about their product being portrayed in a negative light but that does not seem to be the case.

I've mentioned both the Lindex campaign and the new Tourism Australia campaign before. I'll get back to the latter one in a minute, but wanted to mention yet another campaign that has sparked controversy - this time an ad for tampons. These ads have been appearing around Stockholm over the last few weeks:




These ads probably only make sense in Sweden, where the slang word for a female “map of Tasmania” ( known in English as “pussy”) is mus or “mouse”. Which reminds me of when I first came to Sweden and was looking for a mouse mat for my computer at one of the big Coop department stores. The assistant that I asked directed me over to the aisle containing sanitary napkins and tampons, which puzzled me until I told Lars-Göran when I came home. He laughed and informed me that mouse mat was a slangy Swedish term for a sanitary napkin. Marie the Mouth strikes again with lesson #78 on what not to say in Sweden!

Anyway, I really like this Ob ad with the cute little mouse asleep on a tampon pillow. The writing says “Make your mouse comfortable” and I thought it was rather humourous, clever and quite tasteful. I wondered what the train and bus company would say about it, after they had recently banned Lindex’s “We love boobs” posters from appearing in their stations. But to my surprise, here we are pulling into the underground station at Odenplan:




This has triggered a debate about double standards, inconsistency and of course whether modern ads are deliberately trying to be controversial and “talked about”. The Tourism Australia ad also raises this question. Only a day after its release, the advertisers were told that it was considered offensive in parts of Asia and all printed matter would have to be reworded and the word “bloody” removed from the tv advertisement. The more conservative parts of the US also expressed concern and it was felt that the ad might only really appeal to Australians who understood the cultural reference. Many other nations would simply not get it.

While that was being debated, the UK weighed in with its own ban. Far from being disappointed, the ad makers were jubilant, crowing that they were "not upset by the ban and hoped that publicity surrounding it would provide a further boost for the campaign. Everything helps..."

I was really surprised that the UK took offence as of all nations, I would have thought that they were more in synch with our humour which has its roots in the whole British “taking the piss” out of something. It was also a huge surprise, in view of the hot BBC comedy series recently aired here in Sweden called Little Britain. It is hilarious, but quite crude and sometimes contains highly offensive language. So I’m a little puzzled that this is deemed fine for UK viewers while one small word in a visually stunning ad is deemed improper. I’m eagerly awaiting the outcome of this, especially now that Australia has sent in the big gun (in the form of our Minister for Tourism) to fight the case for the ad to remain on air.

I’d like to ask spring the same question – Where the bloody hell are you?




As you can see, it is still looking quite wintery here at the moment. I was commenting to an online friend about Sweden being snow covered for 97 months of the year and you can see I’m not exaggerating. Even the sea is frozen, so people from the islands can walk or sled across to Nynäshamn for the weekly shopping.




There are some signs of clear water to the south. When walking along Strandvägen and looking out towards the Baltic you can see that the thaw is on.




Even closer to land, there are holes in the icy cover and I’ve seen a few fishermen venturing out to try and get an early start on the fishing season. This is a lovely walk to take – it is close to town, but at the same time you can feel quite removed from people and civilisation. I love to just walk and let my mind wander, breathe in the clear air and marvel at the natural world.




I still can’t believe that there are only a few short weeks left until they begin to launch boats again. Each day is cold, the ice remains and persistent snow rains down on us. You would look at this scene and wonder if there is going to even be a boat season this year. There better be, as we have plans to be gone from mid-May to the end of September.




Looking at those poor, cold ducks does not exactly inspire any confidence that spring is on our doorstep. It is really hard to motivate oneself to get cracking with finishing the work on the boat and think about stocking her up for a long trip away. Last night when I set the table for dinner, it looked like Christmas all over again!




That should change over the next few weeks. We change to daylight saving time on March 26th so we will have a little more light in the evening. That can't come soon enough for me.