On Saturday 4 April, when the Danish Prime Minister was officially appointed the next NATO Secretary General, I sat watching the Danish TV presenter get more and more excited. When she finally heard though her earpiece that Anders Fogh Rasmussen had got the job, she was so ecstatic she just about bounced up and down in her chair. It may have been the highlight of her onscreen career, but having grown up from about as far away from NATO territory as you can get, the moment was lost on me.
A recent opinion poll by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten found that 60 percent of Danes think Fogh’s appointment will be good for Denmark. But what will Fogh’s appointment really mean for Denmark, if anything? Do people even care about NATO or know much about it? The current NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, is hardly a household name. And if put to the test, can you pinpoint NATO headquarters on a map?
This speaks volumes about NATO as a brand. And probably explains why last year, NATO hired a former Coca-Cola executive to improve the way the alliance is seen around the world. So any positive spin-offs from Fogh’s appointment might have to wait until NATO gets it street cred in order. Meanwhile, as the next Secretary General, Fogh’s had to deal with Denmark’s biggest branding gaff ever, the Mohammed crisis, which doesn’t look like it will go away. That for now, looks like one of his biggest challenges in his new role.
JetBlue has just launched what has got to be one of the cleverest ad campaigns of the recession. Its “Welcome Bigwigs” campaign targets all those former c-level execs that are no longer enjoying fancy hotels and private jets. The low cost airline has cheekily found a way to poke fun at the people whose lavish lifestyles were financed by the very recklessness that brought them down.
Few companies have been able to humorously address the current economic situation. There’s of course a good reason for that – it’s not funny. But we can all get a laugh out of the super rich needing to downscale and “jetpool” with the rest of us.
JetBlue’s emphasis on frugality is directed to all “Hedge Fund Managers, Big Investment Bankers, Moguls, Tycoons” and others who “might be rethinking that next trip on a private jet … ” and the in-flight entertainment includes only a few of the “business news channels that can be complete bummers.”
Oh, and their free “potato chips are not a government bailout and there are no strings attached.”
The print ad is below, but click here for the website.
There are lots of webpages out there that list funny text on packaging and product usage instructions. Like this one that concentrates on packaging which states the obvious. But it’s always nice to find your own. Here’s something from a pack of noodles:
Application:
1. Put noodles into boiling water.
2. After 2-3 minutes, (at first, cook it by strong fire for two minutes and then cook it by moderate fire little) please stir it by chopsticks.
3. The lustrous, bright, soft and nutrient noodles should be poured by cold water after it is recovered from water.
4. The making method is unique and needs short time for cooking the noodles can be cooked. souted and scalded. It can be cooked into delicious noodles according your taste.
Something’s been eating away at my language nerves lately, and I thought it was time to create an exclusive forum to discuss it.
Notice anything strange about the above sentence? Well, it doesn’t really make sense. The nature of a blog is to include everyone – so the last thing it should be is an “exclusive forum”. And frankly, there are lots of other things that shouldn’t be “exclusive” but have somehow become just that.
I’ve recently overheard or read the following:
“Our new, exclusive range of comfortable shoes…” (about a very popular shoe brand)
“I love that this bottle has such an exclusive design!” (about a bottle that 50% of Danish offices have in their fridges)
“We make exclusive Thai cuisine” (but anyone can walk in and buy some)
Come on! Anyone can afford your stuff – you’re not Gucci, you’re not excluding anyone at all and saying you are makes your marketing look phony! I want to know exactly what they mean with “exclusive” – and I want them to explain it with words I can understand.
My hunch is that the trouble lies in the translation from the Danish “eksklusiv” to the English “exclusive”. And it’s not about the exact dictionary meaning. It’s more about the way the usage of a word can evolve quite differently in two different cultures. It seems that in Denmark, exclusive is more positive, whereas in the US, it’s often kind of…undemocratic.
It’s not that it’s wrong in all cases. Because as you’ll notice in the list of the top 7 definitions from Dictionary.com, exclusive can in fact mean fashionable, stylish, and high-end.
But exclusivity is tricky: while some of the definitions are positive, others are quite mean, really. An exclusive group is usually not welcoming to newcomers. Whereas an exclusive offer is something we all get excited about because it makes us feel special.
So my point is this. It’s not that you can’t ever use “exclusive” to describe a good thing. It’s just that you have to use it sparingly and correctly. Because once all services and products become exclusive, none of them are.
This post was written by Anastasya, but posted under Dan’s name for technical reasons. Just so you know.
Early September, ten happy runners and two even more enthusiastic cheerleaders set up camp at Fælledparken for the DHL Relay Race and got ready to compete against some of Denmark’s top companies.
Although it turns out we don’t run quite as fast as we write, we were thrilled with our two teams’ performances.
Out of the 17,876 teams, “Eye for Image 2″ came in as number 2,480 in 2:00:22, and “Eye for Image 1″ as number 3,709 in 2:03:48!
Our leading man, David Hoskin, showed the way forward, finishing the race in about 20 minutes (much to her chagrin, he even ran past Nathalie, who started before him!)
But the award for most impressive performance went to our colleague Dan Elloway who, after having run only three times in his life, ran in 25:11! We think the training conditions in Norway have been in his favor - thin mountain air, intervals up and down the hills…
So next year, we’ll train in Norway. But for now we’re happy to say we all had heaps of fun! Check out the action shots below – and click on the images to enlarge them.
How does a team of writers and marketing folk get ready for a race? Is it with lunges, stretches, and hours of training?
Not so much – unless you count brainstorming as intense mental training. Let’s just say we stretched our creativity instead. It started with one rebellious mind trying to figure out what DHL stood for and coming up with:
Dopey Hoboe Limp (we’re still waiting for a demonstration)
And that just got the ball rolling. Within minutes, the entire office was cracking up as our mailboxes filled with brilliant variations, including:
David Hoskin Lunge (our CEO is known for taking gigantic jumps over tree roots that get in his way)
Ditzy Hooray Line (which the cheerleaders executed with glee that evening in Fælledparken)
Don’t Hurry, Losers (from a skeptic in the writers’ room)
Do Hurried Loping (to lope means to run or ride with a steady, easy gait – an apt description for team Eye for Image, we think)
Det Hedder Løbe, ikke Gå! (addressed to competing teams, of course)
We hope DHL (which is named after its founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) won’t take offense.
There’s nothing like a heatwave to draw people outside - and head en masse to the beach. Or, if you’re in Copenhagen, cruise Strandvejen.
So after a none-too-cool day in the office on Monday, I decided to bike home via the scenic route, up Strandvejen. As I crossed over onto Strandvejen I thought I’d hit the Friday rush hour, but as I got further north the traffic got heavier and heavier instead of thinning out. It was all black and metallic silver, bumper to bumper on both sides of the road.
An ideal opportunity for all those stuck to their hot seats to do a bit of windowshopping of course, and for those lacking a shopping gene, some serious people-watching. Once the shop fronts disappear, then what else is there to do?
That’s the only way I could reason the three-car smash further up the road. When you’re only going 5 km/h, what other reason is there? A sweaty footsole slipped off the pedal?
There’s nothing like car queues, in-car heat, and ever-so-cool-looking pedestrians eating gigantic waffle icecreams to cause a bit of distraction. And its a sure sign that summer has finally arrived on Strandvejen.
For more Strandvejen-like driving distractions and some retro summer music, put your earphones on a take a look at this:
For reasons that only the Norwegian state can explain, I’m not allowed a mobile phone subscription until I’ve lived in the country for three years. The solution offered by Chess, my mobile provider, was simple. Get the subscription in my wife’s name.
So on my wife’s birthday, I recevied an SMS from Chess wishing me (her) a happy birthday. But what is the point? I don’t for a minute believe that someone at Chess said to themselves, “Oh, it’s Klara’s birthday, I’ll just send her an SMS to give her my best wishes.” It’s so obvious that this is an automated function. And instead of making me feel like a valued customer, it made me feel like a tiny cog in a very large impersonal, automated money-making machine.
One great advantage of these systems is that they remind you of information like this. But the key is to turn this information into tailored, personal messages - if you do this, you can make your customers feel valued.
I just got my Danish driver’s license. It came in the mail, pretty and pink, and I was so proud. I wasn’t nearly as thrilled about the American license I got 10 years ago.
Why? Because getting a driver’s license in Denmark is like getting a pilot’s license in North America. Apparently, young Danes used to fly to the US to get their licenses, because ”all they had to do was drive around the block.” That wasn’t good enough for Denmark, so the authorities make Americans work for it. And pay for it – everything combined, my Danish license cost me a whopping DKK 8,000, or $1,600!
What does this have to do with communication, you ask? Well, it turns out that I now have to learn a whole new language: that of Danish parking signs. I passed the test with flying colors, but am still baffled whenever I have to park in the city. And there seems to be no learning curve as I almost never see the same one twice!
This morning, for example, I saw a ”no parking” circle and arrows pointing up and down. But then why were there so many cars parked along the curb? When I stood under the sign and jumped to get a closer look, I saw the reason. It was in 10-point Arial and looked something like this:
<--- 6m | 6m --->
So 6 meters before and after the sign, parking was just fine.
The examples are endless and I won’t bore you with them here. What I do want to talk about is why I never had problems with parking signs in the US. And I’m beginning to think that the US was simply treating me like a fool. They assumed I wouldn’t be able to figure out complex signs (the same way they can’t figure out that you shouldn’t microwave your wet cat to dry it or drive with coffee in your lap). So they made the signs so simple, 8-year-olds could get them.
But you know what? I think I prefer the more intellectually stimulating Danish approach. Because when I come back to my car and there’s no ticket, I feel like a genius. The same way I felt when I passed my Danish test.
After reading the Bad product names article in our recent edition of Wordspin, I thought I’d share this product review with you. It’s by an alternative email news service called Thrillist. The links (as well as the well-written copy) are really funny. And although it calls itself the leading men’s lifestyle newsletter, I’m signing up today. (I’m a girl by the way.)
