Several major Danish companies are currently asking the government to cancel a planned ad campaign designed to encourage asylum-seekers to stay away from Denmark.
“The government’s full-page ads tell people we do not want them here,” Grundfos communications head Kim Nøhr Skibsted told Jyllands-Posten. “It doesn’t help us, and it actually hurts. We recommend the initiative should be cancelled.”
Skibsted said the ads send a clear signal that Denmark is a closed country and could hamper businesses’ efforts to recruit and make it harder for them to export to certain markets.
“Tight and simplistic”
Charlotte Mark, the CEO of the Microsoft Development Centre in Copenhagen, finds the ads impossible to understand, calling the rhetoric “tight and simplistic”. She argues the ads should be dropped.
The Danish company Norisol – which has 1,500 employees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden – also questioned the harshness of the rhetoric.
“Overall, it’s an example of how the tone has become too hard in relation to immigration. There is now real concern regarding what the consequences could be for growth in Denmark.”
READ MORE: Dansk Folkeparti to copy Australian anti-refugee video
Venstre rejected the criticism and said it intends to continue with the campaign.
