Archive for October, 2010

Philips unveils latest wake-up light campaign

Business, Climate, Design, Film, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Offbeat, Science, Society, Swedish Life, Technology, Tourism: October 29th, 2010 by VT

Philips’ advertising campaigns for the wake-up light have historically challenged the prestige of the product, testing the wake-up light’s mettle in real life. In this latest campaign, the test is on an epic scale.

Watch the clip for the trailer here.

Philips travels to Longyearbyen, Norway, where winter lasts for four months and the sun doesn’t rise at all in this period. A town where the local people look with dread to the winter months: a time of little enjoyment and confusion. A period when, without the differentiation of day and night, time itself is without meaning.

Enter Philips and the wake-up light with a simple mission: to restore residents Longyearbyen’s daily routine and help them combat the negative impact of living without natural light for four months.

The wake-up light simulates sunrise, allowing users to, perhaps not surprisingly, wake up in an environment similar to a bright summer’s day. The theory behind the experiment is that this will combat the negative effects of waking, living and then going to sleep in darkness and should help the user readjust to a more natural cycle.

The full footage for the experiment will be released in November. Will it work? Wait and see.

Swedish MP calls Islam the enemy

Miscellaneous: October 26th, 2010 by PVS

The Local was among a slew of Swedish news sources that a month ago reported on a local Sweden Democrat politician who called for a ban on Muslims practising Islam in Strömstad in northern Sweden. Last week, Sweden Democrat member of parliament and international affairs spokesperson, Kent Ekeroth, declared that Islam (not Islamic terrorism, not fundamentalist nor extreme Islam, but the religious faith itself) to be the “enemy” of Sweden in a response to an article in Haaratz, the Israeli daily, to which The Local’s David Landes had made a contribution.

While the Sweden Democrats have featured regularly in the The Local and the Swedish press for various statements involving Islam and Muslims, with party leader Jimmie Åkesson once having famously described Islam as “Sweden’s biggest external threat“, Ekeroth’s comments were largely ignored despite appearing to present a new rhetorical standard for the party, and despite their speaker having now taken his place in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag.

Could it be that “Swedish MP calls Islam the enemy” is no longer news in Sweden? Here is the response and a link to the article; judge for yourselves.