Tampere city ads - Stop the nonsense

This is how the Finnish city of Tampere is advertising itself. The advertisements are created by the movie and television industry students from the Tampere University, for advertising the Tampere region.

Links:
Rest of the videos - https://www.youtube.com/user/Pirkanmaanbrandi
Tampere region - http://www.tampereallbright.fi/

Meanwhile in Finland

This is Finnish humor: A guy is buried in a snow pile, in his swimming trunks. The other guy pretends to be a host for a nature document and disturbs the sleeping creature. The guy from the snow pile "wakes up" and goes into the freezing cold lake for a swim. Once the guy gets out from the water, instead of going to a hot shower or a sauna, he goes back to "sleep" in the snow pile.

You can see that there are also other people going for a swim at the same time. That is because winter swimming in a freezing cold water ("avantouinti" in Finnish) is an actual hobby for some of the Finns. There are public places where the water is kept unfrozen with water pumps and possibility for a shower or a sauna is arranged.

Links:

In English - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_swimming

More images - http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avantouinti

Beastie Boys Sabotage parody

Well, while the video is clearly a parody, like is the original one also, I would like to see this video also as a homage to the Beastie Boys' music and videos.

The music video is created for the Finnish TV show "Putous", which contains improvisatory comedy, sketches and music, and is broadcasted entirely live in front of the live audience. The show is about to start its fourth season on 5.1.2013 on channel MTV3.

The music for the video is created by DJ Slow with lyrics by Paleface.

Links:

DJ Slow
http://www.djslow.fi/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_(DJ)

Paleface
http://www.last.fm/music/Paleface

Putous
http://www.mtv3.fi/putous/

The Official Christmas tree 2012

During the winter holiday season, many Finnish cities have Christmas trees set up in the public places, where as many people as possible can enjoy the view and atmosphere.

The one of the oldest cities in Finland, Turku, has a long tradition for tall and large Christmas trees. The Christmas tree is set up in the front of the church, Turun tuomiokirkko, which requires larger spruce than usual. The church tower is over 85 meters high, so the Christmas tree must be somehow proportional to that height. 

Usually the spruce used as "the Official Christmas tree" is given to the city, honorably without a charge, by some of the local land owners. It is also usual to have the tree owners interviewed to the local news paper with the images about the preparation, cutting down the tree and process of moving the tree to its new place.

In the year 2012 the Christmas tree is donated by a family from Masku, a place near the city of Turku. The spruce is over 24 meters high and 9 meters wide, so the transportation required some special traffic control and logistics. The owners have calculated the annual rings, and estimated the tree to be at least 75 years old.


When the Christmas time ends, the tree is returned to the owners, as chopped to smaller pieces.

Another video from the local news paper:
http://www.ts.fi/tstv/?id=15891078&type=recordvideo

The related article:
http://www.ts.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/420240/Turun+joulukuusi+saapui+Tuomiokirkkotorille


The YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2OsxaLO48

The most beautiful Finnish summer sauna

The readers of the www.iltalehti.fi, an online version of the Finnish tabloid newspaper Iltalehti, have voted the most beautiful summer sauna for the year 2012.

The most voted sauna is a small self built "smoke sauna", without running water, plumbing, chimney or electricity. The sauna is so small, that there is no place or space for washing yourself, so the users of the sauna must wash themselves in the nearby lake.

The sauna is located in a small village of Kuukasjärvi (130 inhabitants).

Links:
http://www.iltalehti.fi/asuminen/2012091116062647_an.shtml



Näytä suurempi kartta

The North demands and gives

Living in the north requires toughness and somewhat hard-bitten nature, even from plants. This commercial is created for the chocolate manufacturer Fazer, advertising its chocolate with cowberries in it.


The cowberries need to survive from the long winters and short and cold summers of the north. Still it is able to produce tasty berries that have been an important part of the Nordic food culture, since right after the ice age had ended and first people moved into the forests of the Nordic countries.

"The North demands and gives."

Links:

www.fazer.fi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_vitis-idaea

Tough as life - Finnish bread commercial

The living in Finland is tough, or at least it used to be. This bread commercial has references to the already past lifestyle, which was full of work, very modest and mirthless.

The boy in the commercial tries to cut the hard bread made out of rye with his knife (Finnish knife called 'puukko'), but fails. The boy even cuts his finger with the knife, but the rugged dad just glances at his son and asks "Well, are you hungry or not?"

The rye bread is popular bread in Finland, and Finns are always surprised (and amused) how little people in other countries use rye when baking their breads. The rye bread can be dried when it becomes crispbread style bread, and it can be stored for months. This was a great help during the long Finnish winters, when there was only little food available.

Links:
Rye bread - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_bread
Oululainen - http://www.oululainen.fi

Jump - a car accident without a seat belt on is like diving to an empty swimming pool

Being involved in a car crash without a safety belt on, is like diving from a platform to an empty pool.

This upsetting video was created for a Finnish road safety campaign to remind people to use their seat belts. The message is quite powerful.

"Seat belt saves lives. In a collision there are enormous forces affecting to a person without a seat belt." -Liikenneturva 2011

Links:
http://www.liikenneturva.fi/www/en/index.php

Cheese commercials with the exotic Arctic circle atmosphere

The geographical position of Finland, forests, lakes, and the cold weather during winter time are commonly used topics in Finnish commercials.

In these Finnish cheese commercials, the Nordic weather, folklore, music and old traditions are clearly seen and heard.

 

"Taivahan teitä jo pilvet käy, tuulien voimat mua kantaa."

"The clouds are moving along heavenly roads, I am being carried by the power of the winds." 

The female figure skater in the commercial above is Kiira Korpi.

"Taivahalla tummana tuulet käy, minä vaan en taivu koskaan." 

"The dark winds are whistling, but I will never yield."

Links:
http://www.valio.fi/polar/
http://www.kiirakorpi.fi/

Princess Leia's necklace is given away to a museum

One of the most successful and famous Finnish jewelry designer, Björn Weckström, is giving all his prototypes, unique pieces of jewelry, test casts and paintings to museums.

Among Björn Weckström's designs is the famous silver necklace, Planetary Valleys, which was worn by Princess Leia (actress Carrie Fisher) in the movie Star Wars. The necklace is given away to the Finnish design museum, where it hopefully will be displayed to public.

Source:
http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kulttuuri.shtml/2012/09/1621062/prinsessa-leian-koru-designmuseoon

Links:
http://www.designmuseum.fi/
http://www.lapponia.com/

Are you a monster - how the children see you when you have been drinking

"The Fragile Childhood activity has begun in 1986 and has been established as a well-known form of activity in Finland. Its goal is to help children who suffer from parental alcohol misuse." - Lasinen lapsuus