Lantern bearer statues are only worn in few and selected styles.
The Lyhynkantaja statues at Helsinki Central Station were dressed in green boleros on Monday morning. The outfits are inspired by From the wrapper, who will represent Finland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. The first semi-final of Viusu will be seen today, Tuesday.
The new outfits of the “Stonemen” have attracted a lot of attention in the media and among the public. Acting Director of VR director of communications Mira Linnamaa says that the capture was initiated by VR and carried out in cooperation with Warner Music.
– For the Käärijä adventure, there were many requests from customers asking if this was possible. The wrapper became an international phenomenon, and we wanted to join the cheering crowd.
The fact that the green of the sleeves matches VR’s own brand color also supported the fact that the statues were dressed as Käärijä.
On Monday, the torch bearer statues wore the Käärijä bolero. Aleksi Pylvänäinen
In the past, the Torchbearers have donned Kiss masks, corona masks and patches, as well as accessories supporting both the Leijonien hockey team and the Huuhkajie football team.
Linnamaa says that VR receives a lot of suggestions for dressing up stonemen from different parties. However, the company is very careful about what kind of adventures they end up taking part in, because stoners are an important part of VR’s brand.
For example, commercial collaborations with the Lantern Bearers have not been done and are unlikely to be done in the future either. So companies can’t get statues for their own advertising space.
– In this case, we agreed with Warner that this will be such a good visibility for both us and them that we have agreed to cooperate through mutual benefit, as in other joint works.
– We have protected their (Lyhkinkantaije) brand over the years. We cannot participate in all suggestions in order to maintain the attention value.
The ideas that go into implementation are always considered according to the situation. The idea must have some kind of topical connection.
– We want to make people and passengers happy, especially for Käärijä. During the corona, it had a more informative idea.
During the corona pandemic, the statues got face masks on their faces. ANNA JOUSILAHTI
Although the Lantern Bearers are an important landmark of Helsinki, the city of Helsinki has not been involved in the cooperation and VR has not had to ask the city for permission.
Linnamaa believes that the contemporary accessories of the centrally located statues will also benefit the image of the capital.
– Many times these (Lantern bearers’ accessories) have also appeared in the international media, he points out.
The costumes of the statues were born from VR’s initiative. Aleksi Pylvänäinen
According to Linnamaa, the sleeves will stay at Lyhthinkantiari for at least five weeks, depending on the success of Käärijä, possibly even longer. Even the wise hero himself has not yet seen the costumes on top of the statues.
– The wrapper told us that he would definitely have time to take a picture with these stone men himself. He too has been excited about this collaboration.
Linnamaa says that VR has received a lot of good feedback about the experience. The scroll statues have also been photographed a lot on social media.
Käärijä is competing today, Tuesday, for a place in the Eurovision final. Elle Laitila