How much is that dildo in the window?
With the spirit of controversy truly in the air in the run-up to Christmas, Stockholm's famous PUB department store has chosen to decorate one of its windows with a well-dressed mannequin shovelling dildos.
A few blocks away from rival NK, The Cardigans' singer Nina Persson has been given free reign to dress the windows of the iconic department store where Greta Garbo once worked as a shop assistant and Lenin stopped off to buy a suit.
But PUB's window display does not reflect the childlike Christmas dreams of its slightly more upmarket counterpart.
One of the displays dawdles in a dream of a different sort. A fur-coated dummy attempts to shovel marzipan snow, all the while surrounded by dildos of various shapes, sizes and colours popping up from the floor.
But despite its risqué nature, the display had not caused punters to go into paroxysms of shock.
"It has got a lot of laughs. I've seen plenty of tourists enjoying it. It isn't meant to be taken too seriously," store manager Tommy Johansson told The Local.
"It's like this game you see at amusement parks, where woodpeckers pop up and you have to try to club them. It's sort of a play on that," he added.
Johansson explained that the display was devised to draw customers into PUB's new Ooups concept store.
"We have chosen this funny way to display something that people might want to buy but are a bit embarrassed about. This might help defuse the issue," he said.
The Ooups concept store is described by Johansson as being much more refined than the average sex shop.
"It's more a luxury boutique. It creates a burlesque, old pin-up sort of feeling," he said.
Back on the street meanwhile, the pop-up dildos continue to elicit all kinds of wonderment from passersby. But they don't exactly evoke a feeling of yuletide joy.
On the other hand, maybe someone's secret Christmas wishes are about to come true.
Charlotte West and Paul O'Mahony
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A few blocks away from rival NK, The Cardigans' singer Nina Persson has been given free reign to dress the windows of the iconic department store where Greta Garbo once worked as a shop assistant and Lenin stopped off to buy a suit.
But PUB's window display does not reflect the childlike Christmas dreams of its slightly more upmarket counterpart.
One of the displays dawdles in a dream of a different sort. A fur-coated dummy attempts to shovel marzipan snow, all the while surrounded by dildos of various shapes, sizes and colours popping up from the floor.
But despite its risqué nature, the display had not caused punters to go into paroxysms of shock.
"It has got a lot of laughs. I've seen plenty of tourists enjoying it. It isn't meant to be taken too seriously," store manager Tommy Johansson told The Local.
"It's like this game you see at amusement parks, where woodpeckers pop up and you have to try to club them. It's sort of a play on that," he added.
Johansson explained that the display was devised to draw customers into PUB's new Ooups concept store.
"We have chosen this funny way to display something that people might want to buy but are a bit embarrassed about. This might help defuse the issue," he said.
The Ooups concept store is described by Johansson as being much more refined than the average sex shop.
"It's more a luxury boutique. It creates a burlesque, old pin-up sort of feeling," he said.
Back on the street meanwhile, the pop-up dildos continue to elicit all kinds of wonderment from passersby. But they don't exactly evoke a feeling of yuletide joy.
On the other hand, maybe someone's secret Christmas wishes are about to come true.
Charlotte West and Paul O'Mahony
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