Byggmax apologizes for "Sami" ad with the worst pun in history.

Same Same men billigt reads the most trying pun I've ever seen in this Byggmax headline. Yes, they're playing with the English expression same same but different, instead adding "but cheap" in Swedish at the end. Of course if you read the word "Same" in Swedish instead of English, you'll be saying Sámi. As in the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi (for those who can't be bothered figuring out where that is, just picture "the north" of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and add the Kola Peninsula of Russia). The first ones to react negatively to the ad (and make a fuss about it) was Vinter advertising agency (yes, Vinter means winter - they're embracing the longest season where they're located, Luleå). Vinter's Copywriter Ella Jonsson said in a blog-post:

Who wrote this? How could this ad slip through all the checks? How can advertising get to be this bad? A real low point for the entire industry. And we are ashamed ... of the lack of knowledge and ignorance. But most of all for the utterly disrespectful use of the Swedish native population.

Pretty soon the Sami news program Ođđasat commented on the story and the Swedish Sami National Association threatened to report the ad to the equal rights ombudsman. Byggmax have now pulled the ad and apologized. They should apologize again for printing the worst pun in history. Seriously.