I don’t want to be too specific, and exhibit a person or a club, so I have chosen to modify the facts slightly, to keep the involved parties uninvolved.
I was recently asked to make a banner for a Nordic show event for a certain kind of pet. In this case we will say it was a dog show. One of my suggestions was a dog wearing a viking uniform, as it is a Nordic show and I imagined that Vikings was one of the common denominators.
The club was thrilled, and they used the banner to invite members from multiple Scandinavian countries. I got several positive replies and comments from multiple members saying that they thought the image was really cute!
Some time later, the Swedish delegation protested, saying that they could not publish the invitation banner to their members, because viking helmets with horns were a symbol of right wing extremists and that they represented Nazis.
Initially I thought that this was a joke, but i don’t want to judge before knowing if this indeed is the case in Sweden. Do people look at horned viking helmets and think “Nazi” instead of “Viking”?
And yes - this is made with AI. Love it or hate it, it makes for very affordable illustrations for clubs and groups that have no money and make no money
Eh, I would say not really.
It’s true that the far right broadly embraces symbolism from the pre-christian era, much the same way they embrace general nationalism and Swedish flags.
As long as you keep it on a decently tasteful level with regards to the viking helmets, I see no reason why it would give me far right-vibes.
I guess in an effort to avoid doubt, you could play up the cuteness of the animal in question. The far right are not really known for cuteness, which would distance the symbolism from that group.
Thanks. I would say that the image in question was as cute as images can get! Really a sweet little pet that (imo) would have nothing to do with any political or ideological standpoint