Watch This Hilarious Danish Helmet Safety Ad

Be a Viking. Wear a helmet.

Graeme Jones

By: Graeme Jones

Jun 10, 2021 at 4:03pm ET

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Creative communications agency &CO just released a hilariously effective commercial about safety that you’ve just gotta see. It’ll make you smile, maybe even laugh, and with over 545,000 views in the first three days of being online, it’s easy to see why the ad has gone viral.

Made for the Danish Road Safety Council, the commercial takes us to a rural Danish village in The Year of our Lord 893. We’re introduced to Svend, the village’s burly, straight-faced Hersir and leader of an army that’s about to go pillaging England. As he mounts his trusty steed to lead his troops to invasion, his son can be seen running up with something in his hand. On approach, he extends a steel helmet to his father, who ignores the gesture and calls his company into action.

“Svend, shouldn’t you be wearing a helmet?” one of his men, Hjalmar, pipes up.

“No, it’s annoying. It makes my scalp itch,” Svend retorts, adding, “I’m a careful rider,” before kicking the helmet out of his son’s hands.

Svend, of course, is portraying today’s macho rider who refuses to wear a helmet because of [insert non-negotiable negative helmet characteristic here]. The ad is aimed at cyclists, but it’s easy to draw the comparison to stubborn motorcycle riders. The commercial shows how this argument is old as time, or at least as old as the era of the ransacking Viking.

Svend balks at the heartfelt pleas of those that care about him. He has all the usual excuses, but finally, in a short-tempered burst of honesty, we hear truth: “It ruins my braids!”

What do you think?

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His wife ultimately approaches, baby in hand, and puts her foot down. Pillage all you want, she says, but you’re wearing a damn a helmet. He begrudgingly accepts, puts on the helmet, and immediately hits his head on a post. The tagline “Helmets have always been a bright idea” appears on-screen as the commercial comes to a close.

I encourage anyone with “that friend” to show them this video. They’ll be peeved because you won’t just leave this stupid helmet argument alone, but it’s still a pretty fun and compelling way to get the message across.