A little while ago, Volvo Trucks released an ad starring Jean Claude van Damme. Volvo cars has no followed suit, releasing an ad starring Swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimovicm.
“Sweden is our home,” says the ad. “Mountains, vast forests, long distances, sun, rain, darkness, snow and ice. This inspires and challenges us when we develop our cars. The Swedish wilderness is our heritage and it is here we find our strength. Just like Zlatan Ibrahimović. This is our celebration of Sweden.”
Though you probably won’t know it – unless you’re Swedish, that is – this is quite a controversial advertisement. Why? Well, it features a reinterpretation of the Swedish national anthem, with Ibrahimovicm supplying his own version of the anthem’s lyrics in voiceover.
The whole issue is made even more “political” by the fact that Ibrahimovicm has been criticised for never singing along to the Swedish anthem prior to an international game. “It has just never clicked with me to sing these words,” he recently stated. “This new anthem is just what we need. The old one was long and boring.”
Starring the XC70, the ad is undoubtedly very well made, providing beautiful shots of the the stark Swedish countryside. It is unlikely, though, to match Van Damme’s truck ad in terms of popularity, since more than 68 million people have already watched it on YouTube. You can see both the Volvo Trucks and Volvo Cars ads below.