Will Hygge be more than a marketing device in the UK?
(Updated article, workshop #5)
By Emma Kjellin
Kayleigh Tanner, author of Hello Hygge blog, claims in an interview that she can’t imagine the health trend hygge to survive in the UK the years to come. Rather than being a health trend, it has become more of a marketing device.
During 2015 and 2016 the world got introduced to the term “hygge” which is described as “A quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being”. It originates from the 19th century from a Norwegian word that means “hug”. Coming from a long history in the Danish culture, it quickly became a new health trend, not only in the UK but all around the world.
Marketing device
However, Tanner says that the trend has become somewhat of a marketing device and that we seem to have lost the core meaning of its definition.
“I think most people in the UK kind of discarded hygge as just another trend” says Tanner.
What was first a trend encouraging an atmosphere of contentment and wellbeing has now become a marketing trick.
Negative spin
Meik Wiking, author of The little book of Hygge, one of the many books created during this time, describes that hygge is mainly about creating an atmosphere and an experience, rather than things.
However, just like Tanner describes, the term has appeared more frequently in sales ads for candles, blankets and other things that are associated with hygge. Eventually the tone changed when the word appeared in articles.
“Far from being a radical new concept and sexy lifestyle trend, hygge is festive twee, repurposed for an Ikea-addled generation”, The Telegraph wrote in the end of 2016
The trend has come to an end
Even though Tanner claims that she will continue to spread the word of hygge through her blog, she can’t imagine Hygge to carry on the years to come.
Kjellin journalism 