Samuel L Jackson's 'Motherfuckin' wind farms' video for Vatenfall was this week's big hit. Its timing and its tone of voice were big contributors.

It’s rare for a corporate video to get much attention but this week Vattenfall, the Swedish state-owned energy company, achieved the almost unthinkable - a corporate viral hit on the less than glamorous topic of wind farms.

Timing certainly had something to do with it. Vattenfall’s video, ostensibly promoting seaweed snacks farmed from its offshore wind farms in Denmark, was released a matter of days after US president Donald Trump launched an angry tirade against wind turbines during his meeting with EU president Ursula von der Leyen on 27 July. The minute-long video, starring US actor (and former marine biology student) Samuel L Jackson appears to be a counter argument to some of the falsehoods and misinformation on wind farms. Jackson opens the video, staring out to sea through binoculars, exclaiming “Motherfucking wind farms. Loud, ugly, harmful to nature.”

Lowering his binoculars he then turns to the camera and with an amused shake of his head, asks “Who says that?”

It seems a direct challenge to the US president but it appears that on this occasion fortune had favoured the wind farms.

The campaign was actually filmed back in October, with its release greatly benefitting from Trump turning up the dial on his anti-turbine rhetoric. According to Andrine Nordby, brand activation manager at Vattenfall, Jackson was chosen to front the film not to stick a middle finger up at Donald Trump but because he is committed to the subject.

As she explained, “Samuel L. Jackson shares our vision of a fossil free future and wants to use his influence to inform people about the potential and lesser-known facts about offshore wind farms. He has a long history of activism in social justice issues, and a respected opinion in important societal subjects. And besides that, he has a deep interest and respect for all that’s happening in the ocean.”

As proof that wind farms can do more than produce fossil free electricity, Vattenfall developed Wind Farmed Seaweed Snacks. As Norby says, “The initiative shows the potential for wind farms to do more than produce fossil free electricity and how the same space can be used to support sustainable food production and marine regeneration (multi-use of space).”

What sets the video apart from so many other corporate films is its tone of voice. Jackson uses colourful language, bleeped out but still clear as he takes a bite of the seaweed snack and sighs, “Hmmm, mmm that’s serious gourmet shit”.

It’s a style that has clearly worked, with the video getting huge engagement on YouTube and LinkedIn. Its the third most popular film this year on video analytics provider Moving Image’s Brand Film Benchmark and as Moving Image’s CEO Steve Garvey says “Taking into account Vattenfall's relatively low LinkedIn follower count of 301k, it's an even more impressive achievement”.

It’s smart work by Vatenfall, according to Garvey, with him noting “Vatenfall’s behind the scenes video of the same story is their second most popular video post this year.”

Vatenfall were aware the film might create more impact than normal, with Nordby commenting that “We had hoped for [this level of engagement], we all love the campaign and are just happy that everyone is receiving it so well and like it too!”