A Norwegian band who play covers on kitchen appliances, hitting chest freezers and cookers with tools while singing in earnest. A clip of them performing went round the early video web, and in 2005 Ford put them on a coast-to-coast American tour as a viral campaign for the Fusion. The record's entry for a band that was a marketing budget's idea of an internet joke.
The tour was not a fan-driven phenomenon. It was a Ford campaign with the band as the content, one of the first cases of a brand manufacturing a viral video rather than waiting for one.
Seen on a forum in about 2006 under the title 'Norwegians destroy kitchen', with the first reply asking whether it was an advert. It was an advert. The thread carried on regardless.
Died around 2008, once the campaign had run its course and the appliance-smashing clip had been forwarded to everyone who would find it funny. Survived by the band, who continue to hit freezers, and by every brand that has since tried to buy a viral moment.
The act is three men in tracksuits, a drum kit made of white goods, and a straight-faced rendition of a power ballad. The comedy is in nobody smiling.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
