It appears to me that they were trying to generate buzz about the idea of hiring someone who is blind by injecting humour into it.

While it does have people talking I don't think that the message they're sending out is going to be effective. It's offensive on too many levels.

And wow...

It is good advertising, in regards to driving traffic and gaining buzz. But wow is all I can say.

I take notes for (and thus work with) a blind grad student on campus. Truthfully? If he's any representative of blind folk in general, you CAN'T get away with this kind of crap with a blind person.

Among other things, he's very aware of sound -- enough that he considers it "sonar" to help navigate himself, and likely most of these stunts would be foiled by that alone. 9 times out of 10, the only thing he actually needs help with would be telling the bus routes apart, since the buses here don't have an audio component to announce themselves and their stops.

I found it hilarious. I'm Norwegian, and I think it's like any other Norwegian ads. Many Norwegian commercials play on stereotypes and sarcasm, as opposed to many foreign commercials. I know "I'm Norwegian" doesn't speak for all Norwegians, but I think they are not far from what we see on TV every day.

I think ads in Norway generally assume people are well-reflected(is that a word?), smart people. These ads require the viewer to think for themselves. People understand that blind people are not dumb. People understand that you can't get away with anything if the person is blind. That's why they are so funny. They throw our stereotypes back at us.

There's an ad for cheese that implies that all teenagers are stupid and obnoxious. And draws that really far, to the point of funny. Because everyones stereotype of a teenager is like that.

I find US commercial really offensive, since they often imply that the buyer is stupid - it might be a cultural difference in how we view ads on tv..?

I had a blind acquaintance in college, Nate. Nate transverse our extensive college campus like a pro and had audio software on his laptop. Also, we're fortunate enough to have audio messages on our bases here. In short, yes he was blind, but he was NOT unaware of his surroundings. He just relied on different senses to get around. I think he would agree with me that these commercials demonstrate a real lack of understanding of the blind.

I think (hope) the ads are meant to be tongue in cheek, but they are based on an ignorant stereotype. In any case, only a small minority of blind people are totally blind, and only about 4 per cent of blind people can't distinguish light from dark. Most blind people would need good lighting in an office environment, rather than being able to work in the dark.

The ads are not addressing actual concerns that potential employers may have. Can employers or blind employees get help with costs such as special computer equipment, minor adaptations to premises or the cost of a reader or assistant to help the blind employee where appropriate? That would be more relevant information.

These commercials are totally tongue-in-cheek, as is very often the case with Scandinavian commercials. They are not supposed to be taken seriously in the sense that you could actually do these things around a blind person. However, they are supposed to make us think about blind people as normal people, who just happen to be unable to see. I think the producers of these commercial would find it amusing that anyone would actually think that they were serious.

I think it's interesting to note that the ads are funded by the Norwegian Association OF the Blind, which would imply an advocacy group from within the community. I would like to see where the idea came from (ad agency, in house idea, etc)- it did have to get approved by the organization. Of course the ads are not addressing concerns that potential employers might have (that's really much more than an short ad spot can do, I think), it's focused on planting the very idea with potential employers that blind people can function perfectly well as regular employees, and trying to mainstream a part of the population toward whom, let's be honest, sighted people too often behave quite patronizingly/uncomfortably.

The ads recognize all of the stereotypes and anxieties that many employers would like immediately consider (but not voice) at the suggestion of hiring a blind employee, and playing on that in the most absurd way possible. Or maybe they're offensive- I would want more information about the organization, the ideas of the ads, and also I'd love the insight from a sociologist who works on issues of self-perception related to cultural presence/understanding/work realities within the blind community.

I think that above all, the interesting thing about these commercials is not what they say about Norwegians and their culture, but the way that you (Americans) see it. I also belong to a non-American culture, and I, too, only understood the humour here; while it seems that many Americans here are responding way way too seriously, as if sense of humour was totally wiped off American campuses.

I'm not American (specifically, I'm Scottish) and I definitely would questioningly raise a brow at this sort of advertising. I mean, tongue in cheek or not, I'm not exactly sure what message this is sending that's actually positive about blind people other than.. perhaps they might humorously make your office times more fun by maybe not noticing stuff. Even if you don't take that as being what it's actually saying, and that being a sort of joking faux-benefit to it, it seems like there would be better ways to encourage employing the blind that that.

But I imagine the advertising types just thought that being 'provoking' was probably enough, and would consider this sort of discourse we're doing here to be a positive effect of this advert. I'm not sure how much that attitude that provocative is positive really really translates to positive reactions towards the messages they are attempting to send in these cases.

A side note, unrelated to the presentation of the blind in the commercials: I have managed to see only two of the commercials (the one with the couple about to have office-sex on the copy-machines, and the ones with the lady-boss getting undressed). However, in both it strikes me that the co-workers were "regular" people. The boss was a regular middle-aged woman, not some model. Since I am a long-time reader of this blog, and I have seen many images portraying women bosses/office workers in the US on this blog, and they are usually "well maintained" [=look like models] in a way most women aren't, I wonder if *this* is the real culture-gap between Norway and the US.

I thought these were awesome. . . Clearly they're pointing out how silly it is to see blind people as inept.

I'm not sure if these ads are particularly offensive or funny or what, but I did notice they're quiet. The "message" is written out instead of spoken. When I watched these ads my first thoughts were, "My gawd, they're making fun of blind people and they won't even know it!"

Is there some kind of assistance for people who are blind to watch television? I see that this is FROM a blind association, but as an American I picture a fat cat company president saying, "HAHA-what? It's not like they'll see it anyway!"

I realize this is an ignorant point of view and I welcome criticism as I ponder why I think this way myself.

The Norwegian Association of the Blind has another funny commercial, but about guide dogs. It shows people interfering with people at their jobs the way they might interfere with a guide dog. So these are probalby part of a longer series of awareness through humor. The guide dog ad is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Vb7y8Omf8