Web Extra: Finland’s Unusual Take on the Recession

And now for something almost completely different: an advertising campaign that urges consumers to SPEND their way out of the recession, instead of save their way through it. We ran a snippet of it in our story on “$avingsman” Thursday, but here it is in its Scandinavian (Bergmanesque?) entirety. It’s running on TV in Finland (where, as in the U.S., the personal savings rate has suddenly soared) and was produced by the Finnish ad agency Bob Helsinki. CEO Mika Sarimo sent us this summary, along with the subtitled seven-minute (!) ad:

One day, Recession (called “Lama” in Finnish) enters the lives of three Finnish families … Lama is an invisible recession creature, and its new hosts wonder how they should take care of the new pet. They soon realize that the best way to please the Recession is to save on all possible things … The more the families cut down on consumption, the greedier and bigger the Recession pet gets.