Who's the blond?

July 2, 2008 2:42 AM

This Spring Swedish super-blogger Blondinbella aka Isabella Löwengrip is causing a huge controversy in Sweden.17 year old Isabella Löwengrip writes Sweden's most read and most discussed blog, Blondinbella. (Here is number two FWIW.) Löwengrip started blogging to recruit members to the political party Moderaterna (what passes for right wing in Sweden) but she discovered readers were far more interested in reading about what she was wearing.

Another Swedish blogger writes:

A journalist estimated that she makes five million kroner a year (about US900k) ads. She does have 200,000 readers a week, apparently - and that’s the same as some newspaper sites, which must terrify the newspapers. Regardless, the blog does appear to be one of the most popular in Sweden. According to Löwengrip herself, that’s because she “cares about her readers and doesn’t scare them away with a site that looks like a homepage from the 1990s”, and because she’s open and shares stories and photos from her life - unlike Swedish politicians.

Blogger Kristine Lowe observes:

I happened to mention how one clothing chain found Blondinbella (aka Isabella Löwengrip), one of Sweden's most read bloggers, especially useful in its marketing strategy. However, Blondinbella's business model is not only based on selling advertisement space, but also on being paid to write about products.

Accused of covert advertising. "Löwengrip says her advertisers buy “package deals”, where she’s paid a fixed sum for writing about the product or company a certain number of times on her blog and making sure she mentions it if she’s interviewed on television or by a newspaper."

posted by three blind mice (25 comments total)

I have been reading all about this on my Amazing Amazon Kindle.
posted by srboisvert at 3:08 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Pepsi Blond?

(I thought I'd hit on a new buzzword when the word "blogvertising" came to mind while reading this. However, Google already shows 27,100 hits...)
posted by Skeptic at 3:09 AM on July 2, 2008

more power to her, but isn't the design pretty assy?
posted by matteo at 3:27 AM on July 2, 2008

Hot swedish chicks! I've got to click... oh wait, advertising, maybe not.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:45 AM on July 2, 2008

Those Swedes have got to be on drugs -- she can't even write like regular people, it's all this jibber-jabber. Sheesh.

Seriously though, it's just a kids blog, some teenaged kid. Yeah, she's cute and blond and wears high heels and all but it seems that it's pictures of her and her friends, like forty-seven million other blogs, except with a bunch of tacky ads. All power to her, glad she's found a way to make tons of bread, shades of 1999 -- "Put something online and they will come."

I wonder what the number one blog is here stateside. (Opening myself up to get landslided here with all you tech genius folks, but I don't know where I'd find that stat.)
posted by dancestoblue at 3:49 AM on July 2, 2008

I blame Charles XII and his ill-advised invasion of Russia.
posted by Abiezer at 4:14 AM on July 2, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

she discovered readers were far more interested in reading about what she was wearing

Wait a minute. Do you honestly mean to tell me that the majority of her readers are more interested in looking at a hot teenage blond Swedish girl than actually reading any of the dippy observations she has to make? No. Way.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:28 AM on July 2, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

Extremt skönt pumps med öppen tå
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:36 AM on July 2, 2008

Sweden is fucked up.
It's the Japan of Europe.
posted by fullerine at 4:41 AM on July 2, 2008

Sweden's most read and most discussed blog

Don Knotts' most interesting trip to the dentist
posted by DU at 5:16 AM on July 2, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

I'd say "huge controversy" is a bit of an overstatement, though. There was some brief fuzz about how she violated all possible marketing regulations (and her company is being investigated for that, I think), the usual "get off my lawn, bloggers" stuff and a few attempts to point out that her blog is a commercial entity, run by a company; but that's about all I can remember.

On the other hand, there might be some connection between her antics and the fact that the use of "blond" as a direct synonym for "silly" and "stupid" has increased a lot lately.
posted by effbot at 5:37 AM on July 2, 2008

DU writes "Don Knotts' most interesting trip to the dentist"

What's the matter DU? Live in Toronto and afraid you might not be in the undisputed, everything happens here, centre of the Universe?
posted by Mitheral at 5:43 AM on July 2, 2008

Sweden is fucked up.
It's the Japan of Europe.

Maybe so, but how is this different then Pay Per Post other then actually being smaller in scope.
posted by delmoi at 6:00 AM on July 2, 2008

Live in Toronto and afraid you might not be in the undisputed, everything happens here, centre of the Universe?

Wrong on both counts. I was actually making more fun of the "most discussed blog" part than the "Sweden" part. Sweden seems pretty cool, temperature aside (and not that I have a lot of room to talk in that department).

I was just imagining people gathering around the water cooler to discuss a teen girl's blog. "Did you see that post she made last night??" "I know, right!" I don't think I've ever heard anyone ever "discuss a blog" IRL. Discuss a project/concept/product described on a blog, yes. Discuss a blog, no. It made me smile.
posted by DU at 6:17 AM on July 2, 2008

I was just imagining people gathering around the water cooler

Water? The correct Swedish term for that is "waiting in line for the coffee machine".
posted by effbot at 6:40 AM on July 2, 2008

i'd hit it.
posted by quonsar at 6:48 AM on July 2, 2008

> Wait a minute. Do you honestly mean to tell me that the majority of her readers are more interested in looking at a hot teenage blond Swedish girl than actually reading any of the dippy observations she has to make? No. Way.

Dippy and poorly written; the thing is packed with typos and bad grammar. I don't see where the blog's purpose was to recruit members to Moderaterna, or was that on another blog? This one starts off with a "We went clubbing!!11"-post and goes into product placement just days later.
posted by bjrn at 7:14 AM on July 2, 2008

quonsar writes "{Redacted}."

I just knew this thread was going to reset the counter.
posted by Mitheral at 7:19 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

MetafilterMan struggles at the bottom of the barrel to remain upright and socially concious

Must.....
Concentrate....

Try...to...stay....classy.....
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:05 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

How does one become a super-blogger, anyway? Does she have associated super-powers? What are these powers? Can she kick ass or does she have some lame super-power like ventriloquism?
posted by Mister_A at 8:15 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Breaking: physically attractive people attract lots of attention, money.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 8:18 AM on July 2, 2008

It's the Japan of Europe.

I think that applies to Stockholm only. But oh does it ever.
posted by dabitch at 8:31 AM on July 2, 2008

Evidently this is the Swedish counterpart of McCain Blogette.

Also, jill/txt seems to be a Norwegian blog (not "another Swedish blogger").
posted by blucevalo at 10:01 AM on July 2, 2008

She kinda looks like she sells drugs.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:22 PM on July 2, 2008

She kinda looks like she sells drugs.

Ass-to-ass! Ass-to-ass!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:12 PM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]