His delivery is sharp and precise, and the ad’s under two minutes runtime packs in a ton of hilarious commentary.
These include:
“To be honest, I don’t come here,” he said. “I grew up here and unfortunately I only live here temporarily.” “I don’t understand why people swim in the middle of the city. It’s gross.”
Sometimes he’s just boringly negative, but there’s a lot of positivity coming through.
“You turn a corner and it’s, ‘Oh, there’s the prime minister’. 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 like 30 minutes – try New York or Paris.” “Sometimes I can walk in from the street and sit at a table – I’m not famous. What does that say?” “Culture? I don’t know. Is it worth it if you don’t have to queue for at least two hours?”
This last bit came during a stroll through the Rijksmuseum, when he pointed out that Munch’s “The Scream” was “not exactly the Mona Lisa.”
Media commentators are competing to praise Visit Oslo’s approach, and I agree: it’s fantastically fun and perfectly orchestrated, capturing the viewer’s attention in unexpected and fascinating ways.
No, maybe Oslo will become famous.
What do you think, Halfdan?
“I think the city should feel a little hard to get into. It’s like a good relationship, it shouldn’t be easy.”
