Sweden takes back place names from IKEA
By Julia Buckley, CNN
Bolmen: your toilet brush. Toftan: your trash can. Misterhult: your bamboo lamp. Those exotic-sounding names that IKEA gives to your household products are familiar words for Swedish-speakers – often, they are called after known destinations.
And now the Swedish Tourist Board is taking back those names in a new marketing campaign, designed to make people familiar with the elegant originals, as well as knock-offs.
That toilet brush is, for example, named after Bolmen, a beautiful, tree-lined lake in Småland in southern Sweden.
And that trash can? Toftan is another beautiful lake – this time in Dalarna County in the middle of the country. At the same time, also in Småland, Misterhult is an enchanting archipelago with 2,000 islands – or a lamp.
The campaign, called Discover the originals, has collected 21 popular IKEA products and matched them with their names, in an attempt to make the originals as iconic as the products that have been given their names.
Nils Perrson, marketing manager for Visit Sweden, said that he did not miss the IKEA names.
“We are proud of IKEA and in a way you can say that they helped us make Swedish places world famous through the names they borrowed for their products,” he says in a statement.
But he added that it was now time to “show the originals behind the product names.”
Not least because it is the power of IKEA, a simple online search for these places will usually pull up the product list before anything that has to do with the place.
Kallax, for example, is more than an IKEA shelf – it is a fantastic place by the sea in Swedish Lapland, known for its particularly sharp fermented herring. And Höljesskogen – known to IKEA fans as a lamp – is actually one of the least populated areas in Sweden.
There is even a UNESCO-protected area there – Bodviken, a mountain lake in the protected High Coast area in northern Sweden. IKEA has it as a washbasin.
“More than a toilet brush”
For the campaign, a sign with the text “Welcome to Bolmen: more than an IKEA toilet brush” has been put up by the lake.
A spokesman for Visit Sweden told CNN: “The nearby cities are very proud of this initiative to reclaim the lake from being known as an IKEA toilet brush and are completely behind it.”
“We appreciate that IKEA has named a product our beautiful lake … But now we want to show the world that Bolmen is so much more than an object that you clean your toilet with,” says Magnus Gunnarsson, municipal councilor, in a statement.
“It is an incredibly beautiful place, much loved by us locals. We would like to invite the whole world to spend time in our wonderful, unspoiled natural environment, show the same care as we do and enjoy the crystal clear water. ”
An IKEA spokesperson told CNN: “It is definitely time for some of the places whose names are used for some of our most popular products to get some attention as well. They have deserved it to say the least.
“It’s also great fun with an initiative that helps spread the story behind some of our product names to many people.”
The 21 places that Sweden “recycles” from IKEA are the following:
• Bolmen, a large lake in the Småland region in southern Sweden (or toilet brush)
• Järvfjället, a mountain in Swedish Lapland (or deck chair)
• Ektorp, a suburb of Stockholm (or a sofa)
• Skärhamn, a fishing village on the island of Tjörn (or door handle)
• Stubbarp, a town 300 km south of Stockholm (or skåpben)
• Kallax, a village near Luleå in Swedish Lapland (or storage shelf)
• Höljes, a forest in the Värmland region (or ceiling lamp)
• Hemsjö, a village in the Blekinge region (or light)
• Toftan, a lake in Dalarna (or the trash)
• Mästerby, a historic battlefield on Gotland (or a stool)
Voxnan, a river with waterfalls and rapids in Hälsingland (or shower shelf)
• Himleån, ravine area in the Halland region (or bath towels)
• Laxviken, a beautiful village in Jämtland Härjedalen (or cupboard door)
• Ingatorp, a historic town in Småland (or pull-out table)
• Misterhult, a 2000-island archipelago near Kalmar in Småland (or bamboo lamp)
• Vrena, a village near the east coast in the Sörmland region (or worktop)
• Björksta, a village near Uppsala (or picture frame)
• Norberg, a small town in the Västmanland region (or folding table)
• Askersund, a town near Örebro in Central Sweden (or cabinet door)
• Rimforsa, a small village in Östergötland in eastern Sweden (or workbench)
• Bodviken, a mountain lake in the High Coast’s UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Sweden (or washbasin)
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