The pan-Scandinavian airline SAS has been forced to pull a brand new commercial less than 24-hours after it was first released, saying the campaign has been “hijacked” and that it was the victim of an online attack. The ‘What is Truly Scandanavian’ commercial attempted to show the important role that travel, immigration and welcoming different cultures has had in Scandanavian life.
“When analyzing the pattern and volume of reactions we have reason to suspect an online attack and that the campaign has been hijacked,” the airline said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“We do not want to risk being a platform for views that we do not share,” the statement continued. “We have therefore temporarily removed the film from our channels and we are currently evaluating the next step.”
The commercial remained on SAS’s official YouTube channel in some regions as of Wednesday where it had amassed more than 75,000 views. SAS only has 12,000 normal subscribers on YouTube. The airline has switched off comments following the negative reaction to the film.
The simple premise of the commercial is that many things that are considered traditionally Scandanavian – like Swedish meatballs, Nordic windfarms or even democracy were all first invented in other countries.
Simply put, travel enriches people and different cultures – or as SAS explained:
When we travel, we influence our surroundings and we are influenced by others. The experiences we bring back from our travels inspire us as individuals, but also our society.
But online users were apparently less than impressed, flooding SAS’s social media channels with abusive comments – many of which were racist in nature. Such was the ferocity of the attack that the airline’s PR team decided to needed to take drastic action.
What do you think of the advert?
