Be a hero!

In Sweden, if you own a TV, it is mandatory to pay a fee for public TV and radio. There are two commercial-free public service TV channels that are bascially run by the government. The money is used to produce and purchase TV shows, and the news are (supposedly) objective.

The problem is that many people don't pay. It is kind of hard for Radiotjänst, as the name of the company that handles payments is, to check every home for a TV. So, they make commercials in order to get people to pay. They have previously run a few fun campaigns, including the popular "En snigel på ögat" (A snail on the eye) and Hembesök (House Call), and now they have a new one out.

Picture/logo from radiotjanst.se.

I saw a link on Facebook, from one of my friends. I clicked it and was redirected to a (Swedish) movie, where a woman, in an international press conference, asks how we can be sure that what we see on TV is real, and how we can be sure that even the little voices get heard. She explained it was due to one person, a hero, and she opens en envelope with a photo of my friends dog. You then see people all over the world cheering for the Swedish hero, and more photos of the dog, in different crowds, beeing hailed as a hero. I was amused, and curious, until the end of the movie, because it wasn't until then that it was revealed that why this dog was a hero was because it paid it's TV fee! So, the whole site, where you an upload a photo of yourself (or of your dog) and become a hero, is a campaign for the Swedish TV fee.

Ok, so the idea is maybe not new, but I like it nontheless, and here is my Hero movie (and yes, we do pay pour fee... ;) and here you can be a hero!

Footnote: Hembesök (House Call) actually won the Guldägget award for best film. Guldägget (The Golden Egg) is a competition hosted by The Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, an organisation for independent companies active in the business area of advertising. Here is a previous post about Guldägget.

Guldäggsvinnare (The Golden Egg)

The Advertising Association of Sweden are hosting the most prestigeous advertising/PR award in Sweden: Guldägget (The Golden Egg). The Golden Egg winners were announced yesterday at a gala at Konserthuset in Stockholm.

The winners, in the category of PR, were: A Non Smoking Generation, with their campaign: "Deception by Marlboro" (site text only in Swedish, but lot's of pictures, so you get the drill)
For the jury's motivation, you can read an article at Resumé, here (Swedish only). The agencies behind the winning PR campaign are Agent Kommunikation and Tank/Y&R.

I made a blog post about it earlier (here), as I found it to be a very innovative campaign, and I think (and hope) it really made an impression in the lifes of young people who stumbled over it.

Keep it smoke-free, kids! ;)