Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the SAS woke, self-hating commercial that received widespread backlash. SAS is now blaming Russian trolls for negative reactions and reviews of the commercial.
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SAS Airlines blames self-hating woke commercial on…RUSSIA! by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 471. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the SAS woke, self-hating commercial that received widespread backlash. SAS is now blaming Russian trolls for negative reactions and reviews of the commercial.
The Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) video, which declares that essentially all Scandinavian culture is “copied” and encourages people to fly to lands both near and far to find more things to borrow, is back in action. The company says it stands by its message, and that the critical comments and downvotes that befell the video after its initial publication on Monday were just an “attack” that “hijacked” the ad campaign.
So, SAS told its customers that the things they take pride in are a product of cultural appropriation, but that it’s a good thing. When some people freaked out, the airline simply shut down comments on its YouTube channel – because it doesn’t want hateful speech on its platform. Then it took down the video… just because. Then it published it again, but the comments were closed from the start.
All these actions are definitely part of a consistent values-based position. SAS did not get cold feet over the wave of negativity. And it didn’t change its mind after realizing that bowing to the pressure – and upsetting people who share the ad’s woke message – would be even worse. The benefit of the doubt is absolutely on its side.
The airline kept mum about who could be behind the ‘attack’, but luckily some Scandinavian media were there to explain to their readers what happened. The key culprit was (surprise!) Russia, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said after the video was taken down, adding that SAS should publish it again. And people who are not happy about the video and are too public to be dismissed as Russian bots are obviously “useful idiots” doing “Putin’s bidding.”
And there you have it. An emboldened SAS goes on with its campaign, posting both a shorter 45-second version of the video and a full original version on social media.
But how could people tell it was a Russian campaign? Well, Russian English-language outlet Sputnik spotted the outrage and reported the story. What other proof do you need?
Of course, not everyone took the ‘when in doubt, blame Russia’ approach. Wilhelm Tersmeden, chairman of the Swedish pilot association’s SAS section, told Expressen the ad debacle simply shows that a lot of people feel passionate about Scandinavian identity and may dislike its increasingly globalized business model.
Rival airline Norwegian poked fun at SAS, saying at least the Scandinavian origin of the modern cheese slicer, which was invented by businessman Thor Bjorklund, was not in dispute.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Elites aren’t taking the identity politics line because they suddenly developed a social conscience — look behind the curtain and you’ll see the real agenda: votes and political power. The main issue in Europe today is exiting the EU, so the powers-that-be need to push “globalism” to counter the growing popular nationalism. Elites don’t need nationalism, in fact, multinational corporations owe allegiance to no country. This will be the main struggle for a decade.
SAS (Scandinavian Airlines): 160 carriers, 3.7 million euros yearly revenue! Aeroflot: 253 carriers, 7212 million euros yearly revenue!????????????????????
Swedes are a strange lot. All those dismal Ingmar Bergman films about suicide and despair seem to have been a true window into their souls. It’s as if they’ve created their very own cultural gulag, No wonder they’re desperate to escape it through denial and dilution.
Swedes are famous for their meatballs, meatheads and submarine spotters. What more do they need?
Now they have their very own no-go zones. Another ripoff of American culture. Proves SAS’ point.
UK Express: “SWEDEN CRUMBLING: Demands for military intervention as thugs turn Malmo into ‘no-go zone’ THE Sweden Democrats have demanded soldiers should be sent to Malmo to reestablish law and order.”
Sweden has soldiers?
IKEA.
IKEA is present in the Russian Federation as well. Young Russians like to buy IKEA. It has a clean and clear Scandinavian style that appeals to many people.
They even manufacture IKEA’s furniture in Russia. Very popular there. I like the founder’s lifestyle, sort of a kook that still drives around in a 20 year old Saab or Volvo I think. Come to think of it, so do I.
Yes, a billionaire with a poor man’s lifestyle. (Not quite, but he plays it down).
It wouldn’t fly today would it ?
On Aeroflot it might.
The hidden message of SAS: EU mishmash is fine with us. We love the EU and will never leave. Good to know! I will certainly never ever fly with SAS. What an absurd advertisement!
SAS pilots were the first ones to spot floating Russian submarine logs, so I don’t blame you for not flying them.
I fly AEROFLOT exclusively. I never fly to any destinations that I cannot reach with AEROFLOT. I love AEROFLOT.
So walking distance then :p 😀
<3
Their service is fantastic
Yes, the AEROFLOT service is truly fantastic. And the food is good, the planes are well-kept and punctual.
AND……they still feed you.
I do not need to go everywhere in the world. I only need to go where AEROFLOT takes me.
I blame all of America’s support of foreign fascist dictatorships and ideologies throughout the years on Mussolini and his plan of inundating American culture with Italian restaurants, pizza and cappuccinos along with Hitler’s support of hamburgers and frankfurters. I suspect Starbucks is a foreign agent and should be sanctioned and all hamburgers be renamed freedom loving meatheads, with lots of Vichy-style freedom fries on the side.
I had a latte macchiato the other day in Starbucks and had this sudden urge to stick a portrait of Mussolini and Bandera in my car’s read window and a wolfsangel on the grill, so you may be on to something.
I never go to Starbucks. I drink coffee with milk only at Mu-Mu restaurants in Moscow. They are the best.
I couldn’t find a big stove top espresso kafevarka anywhere in St. Pete’s stores, but other than that…..
Russia is not really an espresso country. Russians do not like it; they think it is too bitter.
Here is a good reply to the SAS attempt to denigrate Scandinavia. (although I found his enunciation a little Monty Pythonish)
All the real Scandinavians left it long ago to found Rusland. They left all the girly men home with mama.
So that’s why Russia is such a wonderful country! I always wondered …
❤️????❤️????❤️????❤️????❤️????❤️
I asked this question on another blog (RT or Sputnik) when this story initially appeared and got no response back. Why isn’t Finland included in this, aren’t they considered Scandinavian too? Or are they just included in the Nordic group of countries?
I found the info below in various places online. Maybe it will answer your question. The pan-Scandinavianism movement of the 1830s focused on cultural, scientific and economic cooperation between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. At the time, Finland was part of Russia. Russia captured the region of Finland from Sweden in 1808–1809. After Russia was taken over by the Bolsheviks in November 1917, parliament issued a declaration of independence for Finland in December 1917, which was recognized by Lenin and his government on the last day of the year. After Finland had been captured by Russia, there was a movement for… Read more »
Russia and Finland are neighbours, and they have a good relationship today. The Finns like Russia. They are closer to Russian mentality than to Scandinavian mentality. Also their language is not a European language, but belongs to the Ugro-Finnic language family, like Hungarian and like some languages spoken in Russia. Finnish dialects are spoken in the Russian Republics of Karelia, Komi and Mordovia. They are officially recognized languages in the Russian Federation.
Classification disputes: The Mordvinic languages are more closely related to the Finno-Lappic languages than the Mari languages. The relation of the Finno-Permic and the Ugric groups is adjudged remote by some scholars. On the other hand, with a projected time depth of only 3,000 to 4,000 years, the traditionally accepted Finno-Ugric grouping would be far younger than many major families such as Indo-European or Semitic, and would be about the same age as, for instance, the Eastern subfamily of Nilotic. But the grouping is far from transparent or securely established. The absence of early records is a major obstacle. As… Read more »
What a wealth of info! Thanks for clearing up both the Scandinavian and Nordic terms. Nice to end the day here on a learning note.
As a Finn I can tell you that the info above is accurate and insightful. These commenters understand something about Finlands history and unique position between East and West.
Finland has its own airline: FINNAIR. The Finns are proud patriots. They cherish their national history, traditions and customs, also their peculiar, very special language.
It’s getting to look like Sweden needs to trademark white guilt. As the kid’s may or may not say, I’d ‘be totally down’ with the Swedes litigating against any country or group which tries to use their patented, registered racial/cultural feeling of unctuous inferiority.
Absurder and absurder. Ridiculouser and ridiculouser. Of course, very sinister as well. For heaven’s sake! Ever since people have travelled beyond their own national or tribal borders we have returned with ideas, different ways of building, designing and manufacturing things, foods and recipes, etc., from everywhere on Earth, and further developed what we have brought back with us and made it our own according to our national cultures. Is Italian cuisine not really Italian because the world’s most popular fruit (tomato) comes from South America (as does one of the world’s most popular vegetables, the potato)? In fact, 20 of… Read more »
Alex – it was before your time, but many of your readers will remember when British Airways decided to substitute the Union Jack on its tail fin with a a multi-coloured theme. The whole thing went down a bomb but the coup de grace was delivered by Mrs Thatcher who took the opportunity of an airline exhibition to place her handkerchief very publicly over the said fin on a model BA aircraft.
She declared, “We fly the British flag, not these awful things!”
https://yourbotswana.com/2019/02/03/the-little-known-botswana-artist-whose-british-airways-tail-art-angered-margaret-thatcher/
Now that is some early Woke wonkery indeed!
And, as a far left anti-ID/feminist anti-globalist breadtuber once said to me “Globalism is better known among those truly fighting for the workers as Corporatist Exploitation”
Give that story a read about how they cheated her out of her money, there!
Think about how much money a western ‘modern art’IST would have demanded to be paid if they painted up all those tails! Not to mention all the navel-sniffing art exhibitions they’d host.
did anybody watch the whole thing? It’s actually quite positive in the end – maybe a bit too deep for a lot of people in this dumbed down world, but I’m a bit surprised to see you pretty smart and aware guys at the Duran jumping on the ‘wow!! So bad!!!’ bandwagon
Well Dave Patterson someone has to agree with the woke Swedes with their ridiculous mentality so it may as well be you.
Thank you for this interesting analysis, Alex and Alexander.
Sweden started going awry, when it extradited Assange on false charges. It is clear now that Sweden and the other Nordic countries (except Finland) are under globalist boots. No more patriotism allowed.
Such weakling countries! I am glad that Russia is a strong, proud country with patriots.
What a F#cking stupid advert from a stupid airline in a stupid country. Sweden your people are going to get what they deserve and they can proudly hand the crap on to their children.