Tourism by definition is the business of attracting, accommodating and entertaining foreigners for travelling. Thus, obviously, those who reside within the specific location would be the most suitable candidates for coming up with a tourism video for their location.
By standard and for understandable reasons, tourism ads comprise the location’s most photogenic, breath-taking or serene spots. Though, these aren’t by any model wrong; they also don’t check enough boxes which would make it go viral for a tourism ad. Despite the inclusion of most dazzling visual landscapes, most remain in obscurity; away from the enormousness of the internet.
Lately, however, some meta tourism ads; a descriptor unintentionally being a play on words; have sought to catch more eyes than their usual counterparts. Most recently, Iceland’s tourism ad “Icelandverse”; a spoof of Mark Zuckerburg reintroducing Facebook as Metaverse. Or, Cowra’s tourism ad which managed to attract Chris Hemsworth’s attention.
.@iceland just made the most meta tourism ad for their country and we can't get over how hilarious it is. Take a look:#Iceland #Metaverse #Facebook #MarkZuckerberg #Ad #TNSTrending pic.twitter.com/DSbE7HuzBk
— Taken Not Stirred (@AdMadTNS) December 1, 2021
Well, on 30th November to be precise; Visit Sweden dropped an ad to promote their tourist spots titled “Discover the originals”.
IKEA is a name borrower
Most of us reading this, do not reside in Sweden. Surely so, as a quick google search shows that Sweden’s population is 0.13% of the entire population of the world. And hence, most of us won’t be knowing much about Swedish culture or the beautiful places it inhabits; much to the frustration of the lady featured in the advertisement.
She starts by expressing her disappointment about how a beautiful lake in Småland called Bolmen has, in conscious imagination, been reduced to a toilet brush. All of this, only because IKEA has chosen to borrow its product names from Sweden’s significant locations.
Her disappointment is entirely right as a quick Google Image search for any of the locations mentioned in the ad; say for example; Stubbarp comes back mostly with IKEA’s links; despite adding the keyword “Sweden” next to it.
Her disappointment with Google’s search results paves a way to advocate for Sweden. It is done so by saying that the viewers should visit and discover the originals behind the names; which in essence are only a shallow resemblance of Sweden and its culture.
