A Norwegian tourism ad recently became popular for presenting Oslo as a small, quiet city lacking in charm. In the campaign, titled “Is Oslo a City?”, a fictional character named Halfdan asks the same question as he travels around the capital.
The ad went viral, garnering over 525,000 views on YouTube and nearly 1.8 million views on TikTok. Media outlets around the world highlighted the success of the campaign, calling it an “instant classic.”
Reaction to the video has been enthusiastic: “I think this is the best tourism commercial I’ve ever seen, and it certainly makes me want to go to Oslo,” one YouTube user wrote, while another commented: “Damn, now Oslo is on my bucket list. Well done, guys, well done.”
The video begins with Halfdan saying, “To be honest, I don’t think I’ll come here. Oslo is… I mean, is it even a city? You know? Everything is accessible, there’s no exclusivity. I grew up here and, unfortunately, I live here temporarily. I don’t understand why people swim in the middle of the city. It’s gross.”
“Oslo feels like a village,” says a disappointed resident. “You turn a corner and it’s ‘Oh, there’s the prime minister,’ and you turn the next corner and it’s ‘Oh, there’s the king.’ You can walk from one end of the city to the other in about 30 minutes. Try that in New York or Paris.”
In another scene, the Norwegian actor stands in front of paintings from Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s iconic “The Scream” series and says, “Culture? Hmm, I don’t know. Is it worth seeing without having to wait in line for at least two hours? It’s not the Mona Lisa, exactly.”
He concluded: “Sometimes I just walk in from the street. [into a restaurant] And I got a table. I’m not even a celebrity, so what does that mean? I think the city should feel kind of hard to get. It’s like a good relationship, you know? It’s not supposed to be easy.”
