The Stockholm region has accidentally moved into meme territory by informing about the availability of vaccines using a viral image.
Over the weekend, Stockholm announced that vaccination slots had opened for people aged 75 and over. To illustrate the age group, an image of an older man was used that had previously become a cult meme known as "Harold Hide the Pain".
"We did not know that it was a meme before we were made aware of this", Region Stockholm press officer Hanna Fellenius told national broadcaster SVT. "We became aware that it was a meme via an email to the editorial staff", Fellenius explained.
The picture was published at noon on Sunday and was replaced on Monday morning, SVT reported.
"Our assessment is that the publication for a few hours of an image that is not in itself misleading or inappropriate does not damage confidence in the COVID-19 vaccinations – which is our most important priority right now", Fellenius explained.
The unlikely appearance of the popular meme in a serious context made netizens jubilant, as many cheered for "Harold" doing his bit to combat the coronavirus in Sweden.
"This is too good: Swedish authorities launched an advertising campaign for the vaccination effort and accidentally used Hide the Pain Harold as a promotional image".
The meme came about by chance through stock photography. "Harold"'s real name is Andras Arato, a retired electrical engineer from Hungary, whose characteristic expression of repressed pain came about when he got tired of smiling for the camera.
Several months after the shoot, Arato began finding his images used in a variety of other contexts, well outside of the stock photographs he agreed to. While he admittedly initially considered taking legal action, Arato later decided there was not much he could do and instead embraced his meme celebrity and the "Harold" persona, establishing a home page for the photographs. As "Harold" Arato has since starred in numerous commercials, including the Russian beer Klinskoye.