The Swedish Tourist Office carried out a disturbing advertising campaign to promote the country as a tourist destination: a short where you can see the beauty of Swedish forests, but also a horror story between a tourist and a mysterious young woman.
To achieve this campaign, they called as a collaborator a connoisseur in terror: the Swedish novelist John Ajvide Lindqvistauthor of the already classic vampire novel “Let me in” (adapted to the cinema in 2008 and 2020). Lindqvist developed a short audio-story where the mysterious voice of a young woman invites tourists to discover the Swedish forests and be fascinated by her mystery “Welcome to my home. I am Sweden. And this place is my soul. You are here now. What did you hear?”, begins the audio while a tourist is shown going into some woods where strange voices are heard.
Look at the disturbing advertisement:
Suddenly, the tourist meets a mysterious young woman dressed in white. “She is the most beautiful thing you ever saw,” continues the voice. The tourist and the young woman begin to walk through the forest, and the denouement of the story invites the bravest to visit the curious destination. “When she calls you By your name, you will return. To Sweden. To the forest. To me, “the young woman’s voice ends.
The sinister images of the forest evoke classic horror films in the style “Blair’s wich” or the truculent police of the Swedish author Henning Mankell (some of them with their respective versions on Netflix).
But the most novel thing about this campaign, apart from its use of terror, is that it is only a small preview of the story. It can only be heard in its entirety while in the Swedish forests, due to geographical restrictions imposed by the Tourist Office as part of the marketing strategy.
Other disturbing advertisements
Although it may seem strange, it is not the first time that the disturbing and the terrifying have been used by advertising to attract attention, and in fact this Swedish campaign is one of the most subtle examples. The interesting thing about each of these cases is that they challenge classic marketing conventions: far from wanting to link the potential customer with pleasant emotions that attract him to buy the product, these examples seem to seek above all the shock, an impact that makes those who look, you can’t forget about the brand (at all costs).
In 2006, shortly after the launch of the Playstation 3, Sony Computer Entertainment made an advertisement to promote his game console “Play Beyond”. To do so, they opted for a commercial sinister where a toy baby observes the product in an entirely white and empty room. The baby, visibly grotesque, begins to babble and then to laugh in a macabre way. And he ends up saying “mommy” to the console.
Look at the Nike Horror ad
The now defunct American ice cream company Little Baby’s Ice Cream also incurred in this type of strategy. Far from showing happy people eating colored ice cream cones, the company chose to show a strange creature, apparently made of ice cream, which with a spoon eats parts of its head while looking the viewer straight in the eye. “There is a good reason for my luscious skin. And its shine. And my pores so clear. I eat Little Baby’s Ice Cream. It keeps me young. It keeps me light. Jump from activity to activity. I love my job. I love my life. When you eat Little Baby’s Ice Cream you will jump up and down, shake your head, hug and high-five each other with great enthusiasm. It is a special moment”, says the voice that accompanies the disturbing image.
Another case of a large company that used a terrifying imagery is none other than Nike, the sports clothing and footwear brand. In 2000, during the Olympic Games, the brand launched an advertisement where the Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton was persecuted by Michael Myersthe murderer of the saga of horror films “Halloween”. Hamilton manages to escape – since racing is precisely his specialty – and Myers ends up resigning himself, exhausted from running. “Why play sports? Because you live longer” says the legend that appears in the image. Had it not been for his physical condition and his sports shoes, perhaps Hamilton would become yet another victim of the masked killer.
Look at the ads for Phones 4 U:
British mobile phone company Phones 4 U resorted to terror on more than one occasion. One of her commercials evokes zombie movies. In it a boy runs terrified through a forest, escaping from something. For a moment he thinks he is safe behind a tree, but an undead appears next to him to make a comment about the product. Previously, Phones 4 U ran an ad where a woman walks alone through a parking lot. Feeling stalked, she manages to get into her car, but is surprised by a sinister little girl, very similar to the one in the horror movie. “The call”who also offers you a recommendation.
by RN
