Liseberg offends Greek hoteliers

[Nic]

Liseberg's latest ad campaign has angered tourism officials on the other side of Europe. The campaign features pictures of crying children with phrases such as "Some children will have to go to Crete / Mallorca / Italy this summer".

An association of hoteliers in Crete have sent a letter of complaint to the Swedish Embassy in Greece about the adverts. The letter included the following:

As Hoteliers Association of Southern Chania, representing the most important destination of Swedish people, we are complaining about this unacceptable action of this amusement park and we ask your help, in order to stop immediately this defamation. It is known that the bonds between Greece and Sweden, and especially regarding Crete and Chania, are very strong and in any case such malicious actions should not affect the relations between the people of the two countries. We ask you to take direct action on this issue.

Full story here: http://adland.tv/adnews/liseberg-amusem ... 1368217579


Is Liseberg in the wrong? Should anyone care? Have the hoteliers overreacted? Is this all a convenient way of getting more people to talk about the park?

 

[Pokemaniac]

I think it's just a poor choice of words. I understand that the message is that the children want to go to Liseberg instead of other holiday locations, but actually naming those holiday locations wasn't a terribly wise move. I think the issue would have been avoided if they had used a generic term instead. In Norwegian, we have the word "Syden" meaning "Pretty much any sunny holiday place down south", but I'm not sure if an equivalent term exists in Swedish.

 

[Lofty]

I think it's hilarious. I totally understand the hoteliers being a bit pissed about it though, although, you can't help but think that they'd see the sense of "A day in a park < A week's holiday in the sun".

 

[TilenB]

I think it's just a poor choice of words. I understand that the message is that the children want to go to Liseberg instead of other holiday locations, but actually naming those holiday locations wasn't a terribly wise move. I think the issue would have been avoided if they had used a generic term instead. In Norwegian, we have the word "Syden" meaning "Pretty much any sunny holiday place down south", but I'm not sure if an equivalent term exists in Swedish.

Well, Google translate suggests södra as a Swedish equivalent for your word. Could be that

 

[Pokemaniac]

^I'm not sure. "Södra" means something along the lines of "The south of" (as in Södra Stockholm = the southern part of Stockholm). The Scandinavian languages are very much like another, and Norwegians can read Danish and Swedish quite easily, and vice versa (understanding it spoken takes a little getting used to). But learning all the minuscule differences in words and expressions, that's an entirely different thing.

Either way, I don't think this will impact the park negatively. If a tourist goes to Gothenburg, he is likely to go to Liseberg, regardless of marketing. The location and atmosphere of the place is sufficient advertising once you're in the city. It's a popular travel destination for many Swedes and Norwegians, as well as any foreign tourists. It's situated right beside the number one road between Oslo and Denmark, and for many families it's a natural place to visit during summer holidays. The amount of Greeks visiting/boycotting the place would be rather negligible in comparison.

 

[Tomatron]

If I was a hotellier in Crete, I'd want all the busines I could get seeing how skint they are. So I can see why they'd be a bit peeved.

But I lolled.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

It's funny but maybe a different choice of words would have been better.

 

[rollermonkey]

The hoteliers probably see this as free publicity. A day trip to Liseburg =\= a Mediterranean holiday. Different target markets.

 

[_koppen]

The issue with the campaign isn't really the countries mentioned in it (that's just funny) as much as how the Swedish people reacted to it.

There has been A LOT of talk in the media about this (even a prime time tv debate) the last time.
As the poverty in the country get's bigger, thanks to the economy, a lot of people feel that it is real bad taste by Liseberg to run an campaign that says that it's a pity for those children that are forced to go on a sunny vaccation, when a big amount of kids won't be able to go to Liseberg.

It didn't take long before these posters were vandalised down here in Malmö (and people genarally don't vandalise advertising down here) with some pretty heavy emotions.

Personally I really don't se why they have done this campaign, as there is so many other ways the could have done it.

Advertising should be positive.
The people who have seen this has either not cared for it, or been offended, but nobody has liked it.

I really think the people running Liseberg should have seen this storm coming, this is Sweden after all.
Anyway, the harm is done, the park has apologised for it, and we should just move on.

 

[gavin]

Personally, I find it quite funny.

I think when they came up with it, they just listed a few warmer countries that are popular holiday destinations. I doubt they were considering the economies of those countries at all. Ok, so maybe they should have, but nobody can seriously think that this will affect tourism in Greece, surely?

 

[_koppen]

I'm talking about the economy here in Sweden, and Swedish kids not being able to go to Liseberg, that's why so many here has been upset.

Just recently it was annouced that a lot of the household here in Sweden was struggling with their economy, and that's why nobody can understand this campaign.

There really hasn't been anything major about those countries beeing upset in the news here, except for a few articles.

All in all it's just a bad campaign that should have been turned down the moment it was presented.

 

[gavin]

^ I was responding to the original post about the hotel owners in Crete getting pissed off. the fact that local people are pissed off as well is just an extra insult I guess.

 

[Ethan]

I think the whole thing is hilarious. And to be fair, the fact it's got so many people's attention shows that the campaign has ultimately worked!

 

[Ben]

I'm talking about the economy here in Sweden, and Swedish kids not being able to go to Liseberg, that's why so many here has been upset.

Just recently it was annouced that a lot of the household here in Sweden was struggling with their economy, and that's why nobody can understand this campaign.

There really hasn't been anything major about those countries beeing upset in the news here, except for a few articles.

All in all it's just a bad campaign that should have been turned down the moment it was presented.

Maybe if the Swedes didn't spend so much time caring about funny adverts, they'd be able to run their economy better?

Just an idea.

 

[_koppen]

Maybe if the Swedes didn't spend so much time caring about funny adverts, they'd be able to run their economy better?

Just an idea.

Oh holy crap, stop the presses! Obviously this guy knows the solution to the world economy problem!!

I think the whole thing is hilarious. And to be fair, the fact it's got so many people's attention shows that the campaign has ultimately worked!

I agree it's a bit hilarious the way it escalated, but still keep in mind that no good publicity came from this, and the park more than wishes that this thing had never runned.