week 7, post 1, scandinavian relations

Aside from these ads being very creative and well designed, they can be seen as a way to read into relations between the Scandinavian countries. This ad is aimed to sell Norwegian cheese, and it is using a strategy that shows the cheese as being a great product because it is from another country- portrayed as beautiful and authentic. How different, really, is Norway from Sweden? And does this marketing really work on Swedes? In order for this advertisement to be successful, Swedes must agree that Norway is better to get cheese from than Sweden, and therefore is somewhat different from Sweden because they will go out of their way to buy this product. In reality, Sweden has great cheese and many local options as well at farmers markets and grocery stores. From my understanding, the Scandinavian countries have their usual stereotypes about each other, but all in good fun, and similar to the way Americans refer to each other as being 'Southern', etc. I suppose that buying Norwegian cheese leads to the same satisfaction that some Americans might feel when they eat Texas pulled pork or cheese from Wisconsin. This shows that the relationship between the Scandinavian countries is closer than being separate countries, and to me they consider themselves more of a close family.