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Dansk and the Promise of a Simple Scandinavian Life
- kasperni 4y agohttps://archive.ph/KsntF https://archive.ph/KsntF
- CalRobert 4y agoThis is about housewares and design, if people are curious.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoThanks. Skipping!
- goto11 4y agoThe story of an American housewares brand marketed as if it was Danish. Not an uncommon approach in marketing.
- codetrotter 4y agoIn Norway I’ve seen commercials for skincare and beauty products that are marketed as being made by experts from France. When I’ve been to France I’ve seen commercials for skin care and beauty products marketed as being made by experts from Norway. I guess a bit of a foreign touch adds some excitement and mystery. But it’s kind of funny how the same two countries are being used in opposite directions.
- swexbe 4y agoFrance is a keyword for luxury and sophistication, Norway for natural and earthy.
- saiya-jin 4y agoHmm can't agree on this one, have you been to France a lot? Sophisticated foods can be found but thats about it for sophistication, and for luxury you better head out ie to neighboring Switzerland. On the other hand, France has exquisite nature and basically all possible landscapes (sand dunes, sub tropical forests, wineyeards, beautiful coasts, tons of mountains all the way up to rugged glaciated peaks). Norway is nice but not as diverse.
- sbuk 4y agoThe beauty and haute couture industries are still very much France based. Grasse, for instance is the home of perfumery.
- bradrn 4y ago‘Keyword’ is the operative word in grandparent. That is how France is perceived, regardless of whether that fits reality or not.
- arethuza 4y agoI guess it depends on whether you are talking about experiencing luxury or buying luxury products - in the latter case I'd say that France is a clear leader - food, drinks, fashion, even extreme high-end cars...
- f6v 4y agoIt doesn’t have to be true. It’s just that people outside France often buy this kind of marketing. It’s like in 90s in Russia everyone was crazy about so-called “European renovation” of their apartments. The materials and styles they used had zero resemblance to what you see in a quality Scandinavian or western-European home. Moreover, people who move from Eastern Europe get disillusioned when they see e.g. that many for-rent German apartments are crap(black mold on the walls is something very common). So in essence, these “country X” brands have nothing to do with reality. But stereotypes are strong especially if you’re live far away.
- wslh 4y agoIf you are in Paris and walk through Champs-Élysées you will feel more luxury than walking down the 5th avenue in NY because brands design the stores in an impactful way. For example compare the building [1] with [2]. [1] https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-do-in-paris/shopping-fashion/articles/288831-louis-vuitton-to-launch-its-baby-clothing-line https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-do-in-paris/shopping... [2] https://nypost.com/2023/01/13/louis-vuitton-installs-yayoi-kusama-lookalikes-at-stores/ https://nypost.com/2023/01/13/louis-vuitton-installs-yayoi-k...
- Vosporos 4y agohaha yeah, I see the flag on Neutrogena products, an American company that was bought by J&J in '94
- type0 4y agoThe mystery to me is why Italian clothing brand Napapijri uses Norwegian flag, that's just unashamed cultural appropriation
- RF_Savage 4y agoEspecially when the brandname sounds like bastardized Finnish for "Arctic circle", "Napapiiri".
- dagw 4y agoIt got even more silly when Napapijri sued a French clothing company called Geographical Norway for trademark infringement for also using a Norwegian flag on their logo.
- achenet 4y agomy goodness, I spent literally my whole life thinking they were actually Norwegian. Thank you for dispelling that illusion
- m00dy 4y agoohh I can tell you about famous norwegian fishermen from home country :).
- tbassetto 4y agoNorway has a famous clothing brand simply named "Jean Paul". I've seen a lot of middle managers wearing clothes from this brand every single day. I've even worked with Norwegians thinking it was Jean-Paul Gaultier's own brand. This brand is unknown in France. Meanwhile in France, every food which has (smoked) salmon on it will be called "Norwegian XXX". Pizza with salmon? It's a "pizza norvégienne". Salad with salmon? It's a "salade norvégienne". The only outlier here is the "omelette norvégienne" which is neither an omelette nor has salmon in it. It's a cake! Also known as "Baked Alaska" in the USA?
- euroderf 4y agoBefore the Helsinki Accords on human rights, there was the Helsinki Formula for men, promoted by Robert Vaughn (alias ex-UNCLE agent Napoleon Solo).
- timonoko 4y agoIt was actually based on minor success in Helsinki University. In 1970s there was real Finglish speaking female professor explaining the issues. Those ads become more obnoxious only later promising "Love and Romance".
- jandrewrogers 4y agoI've also seen clothing brands in Northern Europe marketed as Pacific Northwest lifestyle brands that, AFAICT, don't exist in the Pacific Northwest. It makes perfect sense to leverage regional brands that so concisely capture the aspirational vibes you want to attach to your product. Of course, the global brands of small regions are themselves the product of coordinated marketing campaigns and rarely organic.
- marban 4y agoHäagen-Dazs anyone?
- timonoko 4y agoHaagen-Dass means "Shithouse in the Garden".
- CalRobert 4y agosimilarly, I chuckle when I see big "BBQ Marshmallows" in a charcoal bag sold at Aldi in Ireland. They're great for campfires but I wouldn't have thought to have them at a BBQ. I still regret not buying the shirt at Primark that said "California: Empire State" or the hat emblazoned with "UCLA" in USC colours.
- dusted 4y agoI had no idea there was a brand called "Dansk", needless to say, it's entirely unknown in Denmark :)
- m00dy 4y agoUsing the (DANSK|DAN) prefix to any branding in Denmark is common. And the funniest one is DanTaxi :). In Denmark, it is common to feel down for some days; at least, I feel down for some days during winter, and when I feel down, I look in the mirror and say, "DanTaxi." It is a natural mood lifter
- egman_ekki 4y agoalso sparkling water being Dansk Vand (“Danish water”) is pretty odd
- tokai 4y agoI always thought it was related to country names being used for different services from prostitutes, where danish is vanilla missionary. But apparently it is related to red soda being called swedish soda in the 30s.
- soegaard 4y agoAt the time you could also get a "Swedish water". https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/kultur/hvorfor-hedder-det-danskvand https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/kultur/hvorfor-hedder-det-danskvan...
- interfixus 4y agoEspecially since it isn't. It's danskvand, one word, general noun, no capitalisation.
- egman_ekki 4y agoThanks for the correction!
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- RugnirViking 4y agoLive in denmark and always found these kind of fawning articles kinda uncomfortable. Suppose it lays bare the same sort of nonsense inherent in "look at this unusual and mystical thing from japan" written for city folks that's just the same as a traditional practise in most parts of the world. It's all just marketing. It's relatively harmless in other countries I think but its when people here start to genuinely mention how danish design is better or whatever that it's a bit much for me.
- mnsc 4y agoI'm swedish so give me a call and I will take you down a notch or two.
- danrocks 4y agoIsn’t this part of the plot of Danish series Kingdom Hospital? I always laughed my ass off at the sheer hatred the lead doctor has for the Danes. [0] 0 - https://youtu.be/YlTukY9fV9Y https://youtu.be/YlTukY9fV9Y
- arethuza 4y agoA few years back I was getting a sales pitch from the CEO of a fairly large Swedish consultancy and he was telling me about the network of offices throughout Europe and then added "but not in Denmark, obviously".
- matsemann 4y agoI do find them a bit interesting, because they point out things I see as "normal" and have never thought twice about, but apparently can be weird for foreigners. For instance how we in northern countries leave babies unattended in prams outside during winter. I've never considered that as something off, but then reading stories from other countries about our "crazy behavior" is a bit funny.
- stevekemp 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- melx 4y agoThe UX there is pretty bad (I'm just normal user). Opens tab in the background, goes to read after a while. See large picture and single paragraph of text. Hmm weird (no info it's subscription based or whatever). Opens again and there's full content available until some laggard JS hides it.
- hammyhavoc 4y agoYou're describing almost every paywalled news site ever. This is also how browser extensions can present the information without paying for a subscription.
- melx 4y agoI'm describing how bad this particular paywall is implemented. Fyi some paywalls will server-side render the article excerpt only. No way to bypass it without active subscription.
- buescher 4y agoC-f "cultural appropriation"... nope.