In the Scandinavy

A good commercial can catch my eye and appreciation just like any television show. However, the truly elite ads are so few and far between, the only real feature commercials have earned on YAB are the annual Commies that immediately follow each Super Bowl. However, we’d like to take this webspace to promote, analyze, and ultimately, horribly discredit the latest effort from our friends at Citi.

(By friends, we mean current creditor in my wallet.)

I’m a Citi cardholder not out of advertising merit, but out of default. When I was in college, my dad filled out an application on my behalf, and it turns out that the company he chose is the one in line to hold the naming rights to the next Shea Stadium. You’d be surprised what naming rights can do for a sports fan. I like to think that being a Wachovia customer somehow helps out the Flyers from afar, and if not, I’m at least entitled to an orange foam finger. Am I happy with Citi as a credit card company? Sure, why not? Am I happy with their advertising accuracy? Read on.

First, there were those Citi Identity Theft commercials where normal looking people used creepy sounding voices to explain how they were victims of online fraud. (Especially disturbing is this one, where some guy details his shopping spree at the mall.) But hey, these were clever, and not a bad start on the road to making a name for themselves. After all, with the watershed campaigns enjoyed by MasterCard and Visa, it’s hard to be memorable. However, Citi took a wile step backwards when they decided that “hard-to-understand-European-business-guy” proclaiming the ease of earning rewards is the best way to generate new cardholders.

If it weren’t for what it would have done to my credit history, I almost switched thanks to that travesty.

I haven’t shopped at Old Navy in 9 years.

But, hey! It looks like Citi has turned the corner! With their latest ad, a son narrates a trip he and his father took to their homeland of Norway. For this commercial, Norway is an excellent choice. Why? Americans don’t know a ton about Norway. If it didn’t happen in the Lillehammer ’94 Winter Olympics, we don’t know about it. Norway doesn’t send us elite athletes, pop music, or affordable modular furniture. There is no Muppet culinary expert from Oslo. Norway is an open book, which is why we pay close attention to this commercial. Here’s the link. I’d watch it before proceeding.

Ok, so back to the commercial at hand. During this 30 second spot, the father and son do the following:

• “We drank a pint at Ibsen’s favorite pub.” Ah, Henrik Ibsen. I definitely went on a class trip in high school to see “Hedda Gabler.” What did I think of the play? If I had spent as much time thinking about the effects of anti-Victorian didacticism as Ibsen did, I would have had several favorite pubs.
• “We sampled the local fare.” The local fare includes fish heads. Note to chefs everywhere: there’s a reason God tried to make fish faces so damn creepy. Maybe we should take a hint, and I don’t know, not serve fish heads as food.
• “We saw the fjords.” If I ever went to Scandinavia, this is what I would want to visit. But I must confess. I’m a Chjevy man.
• “We got new sweaters.” This might be a good time to ask Karen if she plans on hosting her 3rd Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party next month. Eesh.
  

And now, where it all comes crashing down for the commercial.“Until we went to the Hall of Records to trace our family tree. And discovered we we’re actually…Swedish.”

Ok, here’s my question. Did they look their family name up in the Norwegian Hall of Records and next to it, the book read, “Please see Swedish Hall of Records”?

That’s nice of Norway. Keeping tabs one everyone’s lineages, not just their own.