Visit Oslo is wryly looking to inspire trips to Norway with an ad that starts with a local saying, “I wouldn’t come here, to be honest.”
The film from Oslo-based agency NewsLab leans on irony and reverse psychology to complain about qualities that make the city remarkable.
Halfdan, a 31-year-old Oslo native, questions if Oslo is even a city given its small size and accessibility compared to tourist-packed metropolises like Paris and New York. He calls swimming in the city center disgusting, brooding as others have fun splashing around him.
The ad compares Oslo to a village where you might run into the prime minister or the king of Norway while crossing town in just 30 minutes. Halfdan says he can just walk in off the street and get a table at a nice restaurant, a privilege he believes should be reserved for the famous.
While visiting the National Museum, Halfdan questions if art is worth seeing if you don’t have to wait in line for a couple of hours, complaining that Edward Munch’s “The Scream” is “not exactly the Mona Lisa.” That jab ties back to Visit Oslo’s 2017 campaign, in which the city “rescued” a couple who had shared their disappointment with the crowds on a trip to the Louvre on Instagram and brought them to Oslo for a vacation do-over. They chronicled all the city had to offer throughout a two-day trip.
Oslo’s marketing organization shared the film on its website, where a page dedicated to the campaign lists all the attractions Halfdan was so unimpressed with, including the Vigeland Museum and the Oslo Opera House. So far, the dry humor has earned the ad 1.4 million views on TikTok.
