How to stand out as a travel agent: Try strange Scandinavian humor

SPIES Travel, a Danish travel agency that is part of Thomas Cook, has come up with a rather novel and funny ad campaign to promote its services to the sun-starved Danes. And this being Scandinavian humor, it is strange and borderline creepy. All in the name of “research”, of course.

One in four Danes experience winter depression and a study shows that 58% would like travel to warmer destinations to recharge. But are the Danes really solar powered? To find out we constructed two dummies at the Technical University of Denmark with 6.260 advanced flexible solar cells. We placed one in freezing Denmark and one in sunny Gran Canaria for seven days. Finally, two robots were used to test endurance and bed-stamina to demonstrate the effect of a good long holiday.

Um, you decide how real this research is.

First, the full 3 minute video, which has definitely been popular approaching 100K views:

And then three outtakes from the longer video, showing various behind-the-scenes, sort of.

Advertising Agency: Robert/Boisen & Like-minded
Creative Director: Michael Robert
Strategist: Søren Christensen
Art Directors: Anders Kure, Heinrich Vejlgaard
Copywriter: James Godfrey
Digital Director: Mathias Birkvad
Account Manager: Mette Ingemann Dahl
Film production: Gobsmack
Director: Laurits Munch-Petersen
DOP: Jan Pallesen
Producers: Emilie Brandt, Christina Erritzøe
Main cast: Søren & Ulrik
Released: January 2013