Like the film in our programme with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, this commercial is based on the cinema documentation of a real news event, making it hard to categorize its genre: is it a true news report, or a filmed commercial?
The Vasaloppet, or “Vasa Race”, is one of the famous annual Swedish sports events – a 90-km cross-country ski race, inspired by the adventures of the 16th-century king Gustav Vasa, who according to Swedish tradition “liberated” Sweden from the Danes. In contrast to the 1924 Mary og Doug film, the product placement in Vasaloppet is far from subtle – chocolate bars (and drinking chocolate) are clearly featured throughout the film, through waving, eating, and drinking. Not to speak of the intertitles, where facts about the race and its contestants are mixed with unrestrained advertising for Marabou chocolate in a way that surely will amuse some people in today’s audience.
With this in mind, it’s quite remarkable that nothing on the film’s censorship card implies the film’s commercial intent. While the other Marabou commercial in this programme, Carolus Rex (which was passed by the censor on the very same day), is described as “commercial picture for Marabou chocolate”, the content description on the censorship card for Vasaloppet simply reads “shows skiing contest”.
The film is also very significant from a historical perspective: The first Vasalopp competition was held only the year before. This film thus shows the second-ever race. In true newsreel spirit, it depicts and informs us about some of the contenders, such as the first female Vasalopp contestant, Margit Nordin, who participated this year not knowing that she would be the only woman who would be able to race for decades – from 1924 until 1981 women were forbidden to participate in the Vasalopp!
About the print: The 35mm viewing print and the duplicate negative from which it was struck were both donated to the Swedish Film Institute some decades ago as part of a larger collection of historic film commercials.

Tina Anckarman & Magnus Rosborn