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A legendary moment in Slovenian advertising: Slovenija, moja dežela.
This week will be dedicated to classic old advertisements from long ago. And what better way to kick things off than with this one?
Slovenija moja dežela (Slovenia, my land) is a commercial that’s come to embody Slovenia’s break with Yugoslavia. I’m told that when it was first released it was seen as seriously provocative — and for good reason: it stirred up a lot of very strong patriotic feelings among people. I wasn’t around for Slovenia’s stint in Yugoslavia, but I do know that quashing regional nationalism was a priority at the time.
But to give you an idea of how big of an imprint this made: I played it for my wife, who hasn’t seen it now in over 15 years, and she immediately broke out into song. Even though she was an out-of-control, girls-gone-wild teenager back then, it still made a big impact on her. And on a lot of other people too, I think.
If you have any reminiscences about the commercial, please share!
(Thanks Carlos!)
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My first reaction was the same as your wife’s - I started singing along.
Those old promo ads all had a nice tune. It reminded me of sonce - voda - zrak - svoboda - uživajmo življenje (sun - water - air - freedom - enjoy the life).
Morning! In the immortal words of Albanian-born footballer Kliton Bozgo: “Slovenija, moja doma…”
Thanks for posting this, Michael. This was indeed a groundbreaking commercial. A TV campaign for just one republic, rather than for Yugoslavia as a whole, was a direct affront to the centralists, who tended to view this commercial as inherently nationalist. It inspired a strong sense of pride in Slovenia, for pretty much the same reasons: The commercial wasn’t about Yugoslav pride but about Slovenia, stressing its Western orientation and dedication to tourism as a means towards future prosperity.
The symbolism of the man painting the “Welcome” billboard — in effect saying “Slovenia is open for business and ready to accept the world on its own terms” — almost brought me to tears a few weeks ago when I saw it in its entirety for the first time in a long time.
I should point out that the commercial first aired in 1986. This is important, since this wasn’t something that appeared when Slovenia was on well on its way to independence, but at a time when Yugoslavia was still communist, and when anyone advocating an independent Slovenia would either have been imprisoned or seen as a loon. And yet, this commercial dared to put Slovenia ahead of Yugoslavia, one of the first such acts of the late 1980s.
Last but not least, its production values were far higher than the average commercial of the time.
BTW, when I remember properly, most of the authors of this commercial were the same as those from the milk commercial, you have already introduced short time ago.
I was a kid at the time and I got goosebumps and almost tears in my eyes rewatching this. I sang along, too.
Some of my friends commented, “That’s a good commercial for Slovenia, screw the stupid I feel sLOVEnia”.
I miss that commercial. It was a great one!
Yeah, that was really a great one. When watching it, I really feel sLOVEnia
It’s one of the finest ad campaigns that was ever made in Slovenia. I live in Holland and still now I have Serbian friends who call me: Kako si kaj, moja dežela. I have to laugh. It was not only a big thing in Slovenia, the whole YU knew the ad.
Too bad the today tourist organization and the country as a whole cannot bring themselves to get an ad like that, which could represent Slovenia abroad. Pitty pitty.
I can’t sing but if I could I would sing along…
ambala: While I definitely share your feelings, I would like to point out that this commercial was never meant to represent Slovenia abroad, but rather to raise the Slovenian people’s awareness of the importance of tourism (hence the focus on ordinary people doing various tourism-related work).
Nice commercial. If they would film it today it would go something like this: two guys hitting each other with bats trying to prove who won the second world war and the third guy painting a poster with a message: “Welcome all, except: Gypsies, Bosnians, Serbs, Croatians, Albanians, blacks, Jews, homosexuals,…”. No women involved, of course. They should be giving birth to new and ethnically pure Slovenians. God, what has become of this country in twenty years!
Just played it… as soon as it started to sound, my “wife” came with a strange “oooooh” nostalgic face and started humming the song behind me…
I’m scared!
I remember that this filled me with such pride back in the 80´. I saw it again only some weeks ago (and posted it on another forum) and yes it was a very sentimental feeling seeing it and hearing the melody again. For me it represents one of the first steps towards slovenian statehood :))
Yeah seeing the guy painting that sign in Logarska dolina made us all very proud…I remember that. I have to say that I come from that region of Slovenia so that was so cool to me back then….being 10 years old or somehing.
Anyway…excellent add…especially for the 80’s. I think though it wouldn’t work anymore. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we now live in different times.
Jure, my sentiments exactly. I remember being ueber-satisfied by the fact that the most distinguishing part of that ad was shot almost in my backyard
And also, I agree with that the ad would probably not work the magic today that it did when it came out. Those were different times and we were a different people. Nostalgia is ok, but only to an extent.
I never saw the ad before and wanted to sing along, who is the guy in the Nutcracker outfit? I want his phone number!
I don’t remember the commercial on TV that well, but I do of course remember the whole campaign, expecially the bumper stickers and the jumbos.
Odisej, hear hear…
Anyway. For what it’s worth - maybe it wouldn’t be bad to reintroduce this commercial on our tv networks - just for us to realize that no matter the differences - we all have a lot in common. (Damn, daydreaming again).
D.
I remember having an English-language bumper sticker in the late 1980s with the immortal slogan “Next to sex, I love Slovenia best”! The font was the same as the tourist board logo seen this commercial, but I don’t know whether the sticker was official. It was certainly far better than “I feel Slovenia”!
(BTW, I was around ten at the time.)
WW Update, I agree with you and I share your opinion. I know why this commercial was done. The bottom line is: it’s great. And we need something of the same for tourists. And not the shit they put on CNN…
So many wonderful replies, thank you everyone!