A Scandinavian Airlines advertisement claiming that nothing about Scandinavian culture is genuinely original was pulled from circulation within hours of its release after triggering one of the most intense corporate backlashes in recent memory, including a bomb threat directed at the agency that produced it.
The advertisement, titled “What is truly Scandinavian?” and released in February 2020, opened with the declaration: “What is truly Scandinavian? Absolutely nothing. Everything is copied.” It then proceeded to strip away the origins of a series of items closely associated with Nordic identity — attributing Swedish meatballs to Turkey, Danish pastries to Austria, rye bread to Turkey, liquorice to China, windmills to Persia, urban cycling culture to Germany, parental leave to Switzerland and democracy to Greece.
The ad framed Scandinavians as modern Vikings who “take everything we like on our trips abroad, adjust it a little bit, and et voilà — it’s a unique Scandinavian thing,” before concluding that flying SAS allowed travellers to continue discovering and importing the best the world had to offer.
The reaction was swift and overwhelming. Within hours of publication, the video had accumulated dislikes at ratios reported at 50 to 1 or worse. Nationalist voices across Denmark, Norway and Sweden condemned the advertisement as self-hating, culturally nihilistic and deliberately designed to undermine Scandinavian identity at a time of heightened sensitivity around immigration and integration. Critics argued the ad reflected a pattern of elite cosmopolitan messaging that dismissed indigenous culture and history while promoting open borders and global mixing as inherently positive.
SAS pulled the full version of the advertisement rapidly, citing what it described as a “coordinated attack” on the campaign. The bomb threat received by the production agency responsible for the ad underscored the intensity of the response. A shortened edit was subsequently released in an attempt to salvage something from the campaign.
Supporters of the original advertisement argued it was a harmless and historically accurate celebration of cultural exchange, pointing out that all cultures borrow and adapt from one another and that the ad’s central thesis — that Scandinavian culture is a product of external influences — was factually defensible rather than politically motivated.
The episode has since become a frequently cited example of the gap between corporate and elite cultural messaging and the concerns of ordinary citizens in a part of Europe where debates about national identity, immigration and demographic change have grown increasingly fraught.
