Norway Firm Hits Pakistani Roads with a Unique TV Advertisement

Getting from Norway to Pakistan is not easy. You could just call, of course, but it might be more fun to drive. Telenor, the Oslo-based telecommunications company, decided to do both in introducing a cellphone service in Pakistan last week: To promote the occasion, it used a television commercial that looks more like a sped-up road movie than a typical cellphone spot. To signal a new direction, Telenor decided to emphasize its European roots with the unusual ad, created by the London office of Leo Burnett, in cooperation with an affiliate in Islamabad, Manhattan Communications. The spot opens in the snowy Scandinavian woods, where a telephone rings. The motor revs up, the music kicks in, and time-lapse images start rushing by – Germany, Paris, the Alps, the Italian lakes, Rome, Istanbul, the Bosporus, Dubai and Karachi.