What do you get when you combine comedian Trevor Noah, tennis legend Roger Federer, and Switzerland, a symbol of neutrality world-famous for watchmaking, chocolate brewing, and alpine skiing?
Apparently, it's a fun and fascinating train journey through the Swiss countryside, perhaps the best tourist advertisement of all time.
Noah and Federer shared a tourism ad they co-created for the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, and people are loving it. This is one of those ads where people don't care that it's an ad because it doesn't really feel like an ad and is so fun to watch. (This is also incredibly effective. For example, tell me all the ways to take a train through Switzerland.)
The ad plays like a mini-documentary about Noah and Federer's failed Swiss tourism ad shoot. The two, who are half-Swiss in real life, appear to have jumped on the wrong train while debating whether or not the ad they were filming was (or should be) funny.
What follows is a story of Swiss punctuality, hospitality and stunning natural beauty, all wrapped up in a healthy dose of conviviality.
Check it out:
www.youtube.com
Switzerland's Grand Train Tour: The ride of a lifetime | Switzerland Tourism
Thousands of commenters agreed with how fun and effective this ad was.
One commenter wrote: “This clip is amazing. I'm definitely going to travel around Switzerland on that train in the near future. Great work.”
“I usually hate tourist ads because they're always so generic and unoriginal, but this one had me hooked from the start,” another person shared. “Switzerland is such a beautiful country. This ad alone convinced me of that. I'm looking forward to riding this train in the future! :)”
“This is criminally short!” wrote another. “Please give me a full hour! I can't seem to get enough of it. ”
Noah and Federer share their video production experiences with the Financial Times, and their “behind the scenes” stories are just as entertaining as the ads themselves.
Federer, who is the official Swiss tourism ambassador, talked about how much he enjoyed creating Swiss tourism ads with the likes of Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway and of course Trevor Noah. He said his shoot with Noah reminded him of his childhood.
“I always get on the train, leave the house, look out the window, see the trees and fields go by, and think, 'Will I be a good tennis player? Or not? Will I win?' ” he said.
Several parts of the ad point out how strict the Swiss are about punctuality, and Noah actually mentions several times during filming that the train almost left with them still on board. He revealed.
“They weren't even going to hold it for us,” he said. “We thought, 'Oh, we're making an ad,' and they said, 'Oh, the trains have timetables.'”
“We were laughing,” Noah said, imagining what would have happened if the train had actually taken off with them both on board. “For example, will it be a meta joke? Will it be a joke within a joke?”
If you liked the Train Tour ad, take a few minutes to watch Noah and Federer share how the tour came to be and how much fun they had creating it.
www.youtube.com
Roger Federer and Trevor Noah discuss why you should visit Switzerland | FT Globetrotter
This article was originally published on 4.5.23.
