Welcome to the Land of Passion and Luxury
How the Danish Tourist Board sees Denmark
Say you’re a guy (José) from Barcelona, 29 years old, who has decided to spoil your girl for a weekend. You take her to Copenhagen because you both like architecture and design. Nice sharp Scandinavian design. Simple and very industrial. Not really emotional (like Gaudi, which they also love) or anything.
You get out of the plane and walk into Copenhagen International Airport. You are greeted by the slogan: Welcome to the Land of Passion and Luxury.
Ok, recap. WHAT?! Danish people are nice, friendly and when you get to know them a little they’ll invite you to go for a beer some time. But passionate? About football, maybe, but even there I must say, mwah.
You and your girl (Naïda) walk through the Copenhagen streets and see a lot of people wearing black coats, looking kind of greyish (because of the weather). You start wondering about the slogan.
You go to a jazz bar where there’s a world-jazz fusion band. It’s early, just 10pm, so you get yourselves a nice bottle of red wine and sit down in one of the nice couches.
After the band has played for half an hour, Naïda wants to dance. As the music is turning somewhat ‘tango-ish’ and you both love the tango (the dance of passion), you start dancing. People look at you, but no one follows. Only after encouragement from the band (and after 10 minutes), two ‘wild’ girls join you.
My point is that branding yourself is a great thing. But seriously, be honest to yourself and others. You’ll look like a leaking bucket when you start stating things that don’t make ANY sense at all.
You cannot force yourself into a desired identity. Identity is a natural thing, like water is fluid and air is gas.
In the end, you’ll end up being unbelievable and laughed at. Nobody wins in that situation. Disappointment is very hard to recover as a company or marketed brand.
My advice to the Danish Tourist Board: take those signs down and burn them.
Replace them with: Welcome to the Land of Fantasy, Design and Luxury.
G’day.
P.S. The fantasy part is not ONLY because of the passion thing, also because Denmark has known great fairytale writers.
Hola hombre!
Cheers to that comment! I am maybe the most passionate dane I know, and still comparing me
to an average spaniard would be like comparing a firecracker to a volcano. :)
I have been deeply ashamed by those slogans, walking through Copenhagen Airport myself, also
because they seem as if taken directly from the front page of a Jane Austen book.
Thinking about the people that came up with the slogan, as well as the health care system, the politicians,
the immigration system, (…) I came up with an alternative:
Welcome to the land of Ignorance and Incompetence!
Frank
Date: May 7th, 2008 at 10:57 Name: Frank (Boring Dane)