Liseberg amusement park's ad campaign offends Greece

Oh yeah, the above ad showing crying children with the lines: "Some children will have to go to Crete / Mallorca / Italy this summer" offends the Greeks. Dagens Nyheter reports that the Swedish Embassy in Athens has received a letter of complaint. The complaint wasn't about the unoriginal Jill Greenberg style of using crying babies / kids, even if it's been done to death. The Cretan Hoteliers are unhappy with the Swedish ads, because it's saying kids would be happier in an amusement park than on a Greek island. Which, duh, they would be. That's the funny. Kids think petting zoos are the bomb.

The president of the Chania Hoteliers Association told Flashnews.gr: “We understand that the specific company wants to attract customers, but not with such methods. In a letter it stated that, “As Hoteliers Association of Southern Chania, representing the most important destination of Swedish people, we are complaining about this unacceptable action of this amusement park and we ask your help, in order to stop immediately this defamation. It is known that the bonds between Greece and Sweden, and especially regarding Crete and Chania, are very strong and in any case such malicious actions should not affect the relations between the people of the two countries. We ask you to take direct action on this issue.”

Can we all take a deep breath and be a little less offended here? They're comparing a local amusement park to a trip to [insert classic European beach destination here]. The funny lies in the fact that they aren't even competing products, a family of four going to Greece is going to be a lot pricier than a day spent eating candy floss and riding rollercoasters til you puke..