Every spring, Pressbyrån runs a campaign where they sell ice cream at half price. This year, it seems they have assessed that the number of immigrants who speak Arabic in Sweden is now so large that it is economically viable to target them exclusively in a campaign.
The Arabic campaign is being conducted in collaboration with the Arabic-language site Alkompis, a website where Swedish authorities also frequently advertise.
While the ad on Alkompis links to Pressbyrån’s website in Swedish, an Arabic commercial has also been produced and published both on the company’s official Instagram channel as well as Alkompis’ TikTok.
Instagram:
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Tiktok:
@alkompis Ad | ???? Ice creams at half price at Pressbyrån! Read more ???? www.pressbyran.se This is a sponsored ad in collaboration with Pressbyrån
Second largest language
Pressbyrån’s campaign is part of a larger trend where Swedish companies and government agencies spend large sums of money to reach out to a specific immigrant group.
The massive influx of primarily Syrians during the 2015 migration crisis, but also Iraqis, has quickly made Arabic Sweden’s second largest language, pushing Finnish down to third place.
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The criticism of this has mainly been that when authorities advertise in Arabic, it seems they are abandoning the principle that everyone living in Sweden should learn Swedish.
Samnytt has contacted Pressbyrån.
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