Posted on 04/26/2007 10:55:19 AM PDT by WesternCulture
A group of local politicians from Sollefteå in northern Sweden have lodged a complaint to the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) after viewing an advert that promotes shopping.
The three-member consumer delegation - consisting of Micael Melander from the Social Democrats, Tonny Molander of the Greens and Left Party representative Niklas Lind - discussed the advertisement for clothing chain Kapp-Ahl at a meeting on March 23rd.
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The triumvirate took exception to the ad on the basis that it fosters the development of retail therapy.
"It's an ad where a young girl is really depressed because her boyfriend has just broken up with her. Goldie Hawn, who is an actress, encourages her to indulge in some comfort shopping.
"We think that because there are so many people with shopping problems it's not a good idea to encourage people to practice comfort shopping," Micael Melander told financial news site Dina Pengar.
The politician was then asked whether the group's stance was not simply critical of advertising in general. After all, is not the point of marketing to get people to shop?
"Yes, maybe so. I'll have to think about that. It was so obvious in this particular ad. I didn't take this matter up myself; it came in as one of our cases," he said.
According to Dina Pengar, all three members of the delegation took exception to the message of the advert and supported the decision to report it to the Swedish Consumer Agency.
"We think that they are exploiting young people by showing that all problems should be solved by shopping. There have to be some sort of ethical limits," said Niklas Lind.
The delegate added that he does not watch adverts on television.
"I have some sort of filter," he said.
What a concept.
Visa goes Axe.
“I have some sort of filter,” he said.”
- I’d say most politicians have some kind of filter that keeps them out of touch with reality as a whole.
As a tax payer having to spend money on wages for politicians like these who doesn’t have anything to better to do during their work day sure is depressing me.
If parasites like these tried to perform a decent day’s work in their life, they’d collapse both mentally and physically.
Men like Reagan and Churchill were politicians, these people are just an abomination. Provided the public didn’t have to pay them money for their ‘services’, they would at best be a weird form of entertainment.
Well, this is blatently false. Everybody knows beer is the answer to and cause of all life's problems.
Maybe it's too depressing for Swedes to think about shopping after they pay out over 50-60% in taxes.... :o
You think that’s bad? I saw a Corvette ad that advised men to buy them to compensate for their small penises.
Shopping always perks me up!
This is totally disgusting. They should be spending their time finding a cure for rubber bands that dry out and crumble. I’ve had to spend countless hours scraping and dissolving rubber band residue off my possessions and I’m damned tired of it. I want action on this and I want it now!
Isn’t there a high rate of suicide in Sweden?
Man, these people sure are serious - about a television ad that promotes shopping?
Whoa.
take out one word in this head line and we'd be speakin' about Bubba.
Not that I'm sayin'......
- The income tax level is about 28-30% in Sweden. In many States in the US it’s about that level or higher if I’m not mistaken.
On the other hand, our sales tax is really high, 25%, but Sweden isn’t more expensive to live in for a normal family than the US with the kind of housing prices you pay - and our wages are really good.
All the same, taxes always are a depressing thing. Tax money that’s being wasted on PC projects and employment of incompetent, lethargic politicians and bureaucrats is even more depressing.
...Micael Melander from the Social Democrats, Tonny Molander of the Greens and Left Party representative Niklas Lind....Holy crap!...sounds like Nirvana for the radical left.
I’m shocked!
Advertising: The 2nd oldest profession ;o)
Uh, I think they should consider their muzzie “problem” if they have nothing better to worry about than people with shopping problems.
“Isn’t there a high rate of suicide in Sweden?”
- This seems to be a myth or at least obsolete information.
According to the list linked to below, the number of suicides per 100,000 people per year in Sweden is about average, just slightly higher than in the case of the US and far from the countries topping the list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
Coming to us soon in Pelosiland....
Pictures Please...Preferably from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
Well, that’s good news.
It must be the weather, then, that makes these folks who were quoted, so cranky.
Thanks for the information!
Shopping works!
Show me to the nearest gunstore.
“Pictures Please...Preferably from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.”
- Who are Rowan and Martin? Please pardon my ignorance.
Anyhow, I tried to find the Goldie Hawn commercial for KappAhl on the internet, but failed. Found the Dustin Hoffman ones here though:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kappahl&search=Search
Strangely enough, the commercials aren’t featured on Kappahl’s own website.
“an advert that promotes shopping”
What are they supposed to do? Should they have an ad saying “don’t come to our store and don’t buy our products?”
Geez. What the muslims don’t destroy of Swedish culture, the Swedes are determined to destroy themselves. Isn’t this the country that tried to outlaw urinals a few years back?
Might the Consumer Agency explain that whole market concept these clowns?
"I have money, you have goods or services I want, let's make a deal."
“The politician was then asked whether the group’s stance was not simply critical of advertising in general. After all, is not the point of marketing to get people to shop?
“Yes, maybe so. I’ll have to think about that.”
- I would be interesting hearing about his conclusion.
Advertising: The 2nd oldest profession ;0)
and owned by the 1st oldest profession.............
“Geez. What the muslims don’t destroy of Swedish culture, the Swedes are determined to destroy themselves. Isn’t this the country that tried to outlaw urinals a few years back?”
- If public urinals are outlawed only outlaws will urinate in public!
Seriously, I haven’t heard of any COUNTRY that has tried to ban urinals.
Both in Europe and America (and probably in other parts of the world too) there are feminists who campaign for ‘gender neutral restrooms’ and such things, but I don’t think urinals are banned throughout any entire nation, at least not for the PC sake of ‘gender neutral urinating environments’.
“Advertising: The 2nd oldest profession ;0)
and owned by the 1st oldest profession.............”
- Most people seem unaware that the oldest profession in history is HUNTING.
In order to purchase a service from a female Neanderthal, you had to have something to trade in ‘cash’ so to say. I’ve been told there were no credit cards.
It may have been limited to a few femnists on a university campus, but they did get some publicity for their “sit, don’t stand” approach to male urination.
I see you are Swedish. No offense intended in my remarks. You have a great culture and I hate to see it demeaned by whatever source. I do hope the tide turns with respect to the muslim infiltration.
for all that work,she better be able to cook..lol
btw the previous post was actually funny.
Excellent point. That puts advertising down a notch to 3rd position.
BTW.Hardball w/ Sissy Matthews is hillarious. Matthews has already had two orgasms.....
Political Campaigns: A combination of the first two..
I thought that was only supposed to be the SUBLIMINAL message.
American comedy TV show from the late '60s. It's where a young Goldie Hawn made her debut.
- Muslims have very little influence in Swedish society in relation to their share of the population (around 4% of which something like, at least, 50% are very secularized)
Our PC politicians wish Muslims to ‘integrate’ with Swedish society at large. This will never happen due to the following reasons:
1. Most Swedes think Islam is incompatible with Swedish Culture.
2. A lot of Muslims, especially those from North East Africa don’t wish to be integrated. They don’t want to mix with ‘infidels’.
3. While some Muslim immigrants to Sweden are well educated and rather secularized (many even drink alcohol and eat pork!) and have been rather successful in finding jobs and starting businesses of their own, a lot of Swedish Muslims lack qualifications even for the most simple of jobs (and to some of them, such jobs are below their dignity as they belong to some ‘respectable’ clan in their home country). This lack of interest/incompetence will be passed on from generation to generation at least for many decades from now.
“American comedy TV show from the late ‘60s. It’s where a young Goldie Hawn made her debut.”
- Thanks for telling me. I don’t know this show, even though it might well have been on Swedish TV.
I’ll check it out. Guess there are clips on YouTube.
Can you find a 288 sq meter (3000 sq ft) detached house and yard in a decent neighborhood for under $180,000??
“Guess there are clips on YouTube.”
- I was right (an experience not wholly unfamiliar to me here on Free Republic)
Here’s one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b7BGBa6MTI
“Can you find a 288 sq meter (3000 sq ft) detached house and yard in a decent neighborhood for under $180,000??”
- In Stockholm it probably isn’t possible. But in many other parts of the country it is. I decided to try a region called Gävleborg. No problem.
http://www.svenskfast.se/Templates/ObjectView.aspx?objectid=3CLID88H5Q075UG0&SearchResultIndex=9
Pictures:
http://www.svenskfast.se/Pages/ObjectViewPictures.aspx?objectid=3CLID88H5Q075UG0
280 sq meters is very close to 288 and 925 000 SEK equals about $136 000. OK, this is in the countryside, but I don’t think it would be that much more expensive in a city with around 50 000-100 000 inhabitants and Swedish building standards are perhaps the best in the world.
Most Swedes who’ve worked in the US say things like everyday consumables are cheaper than in Sweden, although the cost of housing is ridiculous.
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/country.cfm?id=Sweden
- This is correct. I’m just saying INCOME taxes aren’t 50-60% which seems to be suggested above.
The main reason Swedes pay more taxes than Americans in the end, despite the fact that income taxes are not extreme and corporate taxes are lower, is our sales tax of 25% and our ‘extra’ taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gas.
Swedes/Scandinavians and US Americans have very different ideas concerning taxation, welfare and distribution of wealth. However, both paths has lead to immense wealth and both concepts are based on Lutheran work ethics and capitalist enterprise. Maybe the things that unite us are of greater importance for building prosperity than the matters that separate us?
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