Goldie Hawn in trouble with the Swedish Left

Goldie Hawn does not look to have done much high profile work in the movie business of late, but as with many other stars has found that doing TV adverts in other countries is a way of making a living, and quite reasonably too. However, an advert for Swedish retailer KappAhl has got her into hot water with an unholy trinity of politicians from the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Communist party successor, the Left Party.

And what terrible thing has she done? Been rude to Abba, encouraged racism or said something thoughtful about the Iraq war? Nope. This is what the Social Democrat took exception to:

"It's an ad where a young girl is really depressed because her boyfriend has just broken up with her. Goldie Hawn, who is an actress, encourages her to indulge in some comfort shopping. "We think that because there are so many people with shopping problems it's not a good idea to encourage people to practice comfort shopping". Source

That complete denial of the ability of consumers to make their own choices when faced with an encouragement by a famous face to do something is diabolical, but it gets worse. Much worse.

"The politician was then asked whether the group's stance was not simply critical of advertising in general. After all, is not the point of marketing to get people to shop?

"Yes, maybe so. I'll have to think about that. It was so obvious in this particular ad".

So there you have it - even the comparatively moderate Swedish left dislikes advertising, based not on serious thought, but rather gut dislike. It would be pointless to note that advertising is rather more than TV commercials and billboards, it is also the sign above a shop, the design of a Coke can, a few lines on Craig's List selling your car and so on and so forth. Freedom of speech has to include commercial speech, otherwise we could all die of ignorance....