Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Art of Farting and Swedish Advertising

The Swedes have been doing good work lately. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve been using the subway more than usual and so am subjected to the different advertising campaigns like light therapy through billboards.

Either way, I managed to laugh at an ad campaign. Again. This ad campaign was first brought to my attention by Tod. Although at the time I hadn’t seen it. Then, just the other day, I was riding the subway to Odenplan. And there it was. Staring back at me. Taunting me. Speaking to me. Like an old friend.

An old man, who bears an uncanny resemblance to my dentist back in the US of A if he had completely white hair, seems to be very pleased with himself. As he should be. He is on the cover of a book titled The Art of Farting. As someone who finds flatulence hilarious, even at the age of 25, this made my day. When fart jokes stop making my day, a part of me will have died. The fun part.
Other classic titles advertised are Herregud, jag var ju bara ung och naiv (Dear God, I was Just Young and Naive) written by Judas Iscariot and of course the Kokbok för militanta köttätare (Cookbook for Militant Meat Eaters). I found these to be hilarious. For various reasons.
One, as mentioned above, I still think farts are funny. Advertising campaigns that use farts are immediately winners in my eyes.

Two, I love eating meat and feel fairly confident that if people can be militant about their vegetarianism than people should also be allowed to be militant about their meateatingism.

Three, I like witty word play. And witty word play that is borderline sacrilegious? Even better.

Swedes are often stereotyped as being very dry people. Devoid of humor one might even say. I think it has to do with the stereotypical reserved nature. And also crappy Swedish comedies on TV. But then they come with advertisements like this and I can’t help but be impressed by the creativity and humor.

In case you were wondering, the ads are for an online book store. They claim to have over two million titles. They also claim that those titles they don’t have, probably don’t exist. Like a book written by Judas.

Welcome to Sweden. And the art of farting. And advertising.

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13 comments:

  1. Is swedish humour boring?:O
    Try some Peter appelgren
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUUuJ0kO-gM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tsn0XaEwSE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c770GGcDJLI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOoAoo3mjRM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOLWXFBnmeU
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLPFk23s6g


    This is "almost" childish, about swedish vikings, but funny :) English subtitles aswell.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt2couJMURA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNk-rM_sfL0

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  2. i must admit, I'm a little jealous i didn't get to see that yet.. but i promise next time I'm in Stockholm, 2 weeks from now, I'm gonna go searching for it, just for a good laugh.

    There's that one commercial on TV about the black sheep in a white company who takes a shower(completely irrelevant, but still glorious) and tries to get a job, but everyone rejects him cause hes the "black sheep", i know it wasn't supposed to be racist, but it always makes me chortle. I'm SURE you've seen it's obscenity Hairy!!!

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  3. @Anonymous: Wow... Those were some horrible examples of Swedish humour.

    And Hem Till Midgård is just embarrassing :S

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  4. Nej den enda svenska komikern som är riktigt rolig är Shan da man. Nu är ju inte han etnisk svensk, men ändå!


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKYsTFVH7d4

    Klassiker.

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  5. @Anonymous: Äh, svensk stå-upp-komedi är inte heller speciellt bra.

    Nä exempel på bra svensk humor är t. ex. Killingängets sketcher och program, framförallt med Jonas Inde (Percy Tårar och Nile City t. ex.).


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRRjbXRXlc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noGa5qiw-QQ
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8XHvnf-eBc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7a1bklZRjo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xltu4RW8Whw

    Bra skit.

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  6. Länkade Hem till midgård eftersom jag såg att det fanns subs. Tycker inte det är tråkigt, men det är knappast dåligt :)

    Oavsett så var det Peter Appelgren som jag ville lyfta fram, han är hundra gånger bättre än Robert Gustavsson och det där gänget, eller alla andra tjattriga standuppare. Peter Appelgren och Peter Wahlbeck - bäst i Sverige. Jävligt underskattade.

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  7. But what about the 4th book in the ad?! "Find swingers at sea" or whatever it's called? What in heavens name is that all about?!

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  8. ^ i think its about finding swingers.... at sea...
    most likely on a boat.

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  9. Farts are funny as long as you don't have to smell them. ---

    BTW, Word verification: harie

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  10. I think the IKEA kitchen commercials they have here in the US are pretty funny. But I don't know if American or Swedish ad execs came up with the campain.

    Also, off the subject but just curious...just wondering if the Swedish press is covering the Tiger Woods story since Elin is Swedish and now her mother is in the hospital here??? Sorry to ask about tabloid fodder but you can't hardly crack an eyelid here without seeing something about him.

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  11. Man, so you finally saw it. yeah Swedes are pretty good at making ad. like this new one i saw at Slussen depicting a girl playing chess with a T-rex and i guess it is for a business school.

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  12. @Mama: Yeah they're covering it like crazy and it's pissing me off so bad. HOW THE HELL CAN PEOPLE BE INTRESTED IN THIS CRAP!? There's nothing exceptional going on at all!

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  13. @anonymous – quite the collection. Good work!

    @Lostintranslation – definitely try to seek out the art ad. And those sheep ads, they are everywhere...

    @anonymous – it’s not always easy...

    @Atarp – I have yet to see Shan da Man. But with a name like that, you can’t go wrong.

    @anonymous – another good collection.

    @anonymous – I might just have to check those guys out.

    @Terander – yeah... that one didn’t seem nearly as funny to me. It just sounded like they were writing about the Finland boat.

    @Lost – swing dancing on a boat? Quite a challenge I would imagine.

    @Smek – the smell just adds a little bit extra to the delivery.

    Great word check. Google clearly loves me.

    @Mama – The IKEA commercials tend to be real funny. I am always impressed. And yes. Yes they are. Its exhausting.

    @Tod – I did. And it was as glorious as I had hoped.

    @Anonymous – agreed. Absolutely agreed.

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