Finnish Radio Station Drops Boxster from a Crane

As an American who resides in Finland, there are many things that I have learned to love about the Finnish people and their culture. At the same time there are a few aspects of the Finnish persona that will take me a little longer to understand.

Finland's pop radio station NRJ decided to have a contest called “Cash or Crash” where listeners would vote to either win an old first generation Porsche Boxster or destroy it. The result was 56% of the voters stating they did not believe in luck, so death to the Porsche roadster. The event took place in the parking lot of a shopping mall, Iso-Omena (Big Apple), outside of the Helsinki.

Surely, all in good fun, and especially since the Boxster is made in Finland - it's somewhat forgivable. However, the reaction of the event from outside of Finland has been judgmental. A few sample comments from our good friends and masters of hoonage fandom over at Jalopnik.com:

“It just shows how selfish people can be, just because they didn't think they could win it,they would rather see the car destroyed than see someone else enjoy it.”

“How very Finnish of them - their one major character flaw is that they can be incredible jealous, to the point where they will crush that damn Porsche rather than let their neighbor have it.”

With that said, unless you know the Finnish personality, the act of dropping a Porsche Boxster from a crane seems like a very wasteful thing to do. However, in a country that enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world, yet, where flaunting wealth is not welcomed, watching a Boxster getting destroyed in spectacular fashion for the greater amusement of all to see, is definitely worth it.