Yes, you have read the title right. Although you probably know Iceland isn’t such a big and populous country, still with over 320,000 residents it would take quite some time for Frikki (or Fridrik) — the bearded announcer who was given at first site quite a dull task — to read all Icelandic names and wish them individually Gleðilega hátíð, which stands for “Happy holidays” (or rather “Merry Christmas”) in the native language.
Surprisingly, these two hour-long live videos are a pleasure to watch, maybe it is because of its length that somehow reminds us a Norwegian trend of watching hours of repetitive content on Slow TV – like a 7-hour train ride from Bergen to Oslo, or just hours of chopping and later burning the wood. Maybe you can even call your Swede to ask them how they feel about this and the Icelandic rules for names? If you don’t feel like doing that, just read more below about the Facebook live campaign from award-winning Reyka Vodka. The event was created with the help of full service agency, Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners, that stops at nothing to “make its clients unforgettable”. And they sure did produce the goods this time.
Together with the hand-crafted vodka made with glacial water, they took a very personalized, yet tricky, approach. Although, they had help narrowing the list of residents to with ‘Happy holidays’ to — the Icelandic Naming Committe has listed just 4512 approved Icelandic names. Which makes a person wonder, why there is a list of approved names? Well, according to the committee foreign citizens can keep whatever names they have already, but native-born Icelanders are not allowed to have names that don’t conform with their list. This does raise some controversy – for example Jón Gnarr, actor, comedian, and former mayor of Reykjavík, apart from opposing the fact that Icelanders were not allowed to have non-conforming names, was also unable to legally name his daughter “Camilla” after her grandmother; it was instead spelled “Kamilla” because C is not part of the Icelandic alphabet.
So, Frikki, to avoid possible issues with the legal drinking age, rather states at the beginning: “I will now read each name, wishing Gleðilega hátíð to each Icelander. Oh, and because Reyka is a vodka, these wishes are only for those of legal drinking age. So, if I call your name and you are under 21, I am not talking to you, OK?”
Please click on the image to see the first part of the video on Reyka Vodka’s Facebook page:
And as Frikki trudges through the list, the company tries to keep up the spirits of the announcer by giving him a massage or asking the viewers to show him support: “Like this comment to give Frikki the energy he needs to finish strong!” In the second part of the video he keeps on reading the rest of the names, when he stops to hilariously reminisce about a name ‘Krista’ that reminded him about a night under the Northern light… That’s the quirky Icelandic humour poeple marvel at – just like these illustrations by artist Hugleikur Dagsson.
As he completes his task of wishing Merry Christmas to all Icelanders, Frikki finishes with some final words: “Reyka has now wished everyone a happy holiday. I will now be enjoying a little holiday cheer of my own, if you don’t mind,” Suddenly he is interrupted by a ringing phone and someone (allegedly) asks him to add all the babies born since he had started carrying out the project. This does not leave him very happy: “I never agreed to this,” he shouts. “I’m not doing this. It’s been a pleasure. Goodbye.” It surely was. Gleðilega hátíð, everyone!
Please click on the image to see the second part of the video on Reyka Vodka’s Facebook page:
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