About this time last year, Posten, the postal service in Sweden, launched the campaign Stefan the Swopper. The campaign revolved around Stefan, a young, Swedish man who wished to swap everything he owned in order to gain some excitement and a new perspective on life, and its aim was to encourage the posting of parcels and packets and raise awareness of related Posten services. The campaign became a huge success, receiving over four million hits online during Stefan’s swopping process as well as impressive media coverage for free.
Last month, Sweden’s leading advertising, brand and marketing publication, Resumé, told the story of Anna Lindstein, the copywriter who fell in love and decided to sell everything she owned and move to America. Today, one of Sweden’s biggest daily newspapers, DN, had Stefan the Swopper written all over it as another free-spirited artist decided to rid himself of materialistic happiness – not as part of an advertising campaign or to leave the country, but rather to follow in the footsteps of some monks he once visited in order to regain mental and emotional peace. As well as a tent, a sleeping bag and a rucksack, Claes Svedberg will keep his electric guitar.
Stefan the Swopper is a true viral if I ever saw one. The advertising agency involved won heaps of awards, and bloggers and social bookmarketers went haywire. And now, it seems, we’re swapping lives; you take the old curtains my grandmother left behind, and I’ll take your toaster; I’ll swap my house for your husband, just for the hell of it. If you haven’t got anything to swap, buy my books and CDs, or if necessary just take them – who needs things in this day and age?
Me, I’m quite happy where I am and wouldn’t really like to go to America. And I’d like to keep my laptop if I may. I wonder who Posten would like to swap with?
