"We wanted to get away from Sunit Mehrotra's and my last name and we figured King was pretentious enough and it got the most votes," says Frank Hollingworth, who helped found King in June 2000. All told, 25 Hollingworth/Mehrotra staffers made the move to King which has secured a number of lucrative beer clients, Carlsberg, Tuborg and Falcon as well as Canon, Tele2 and Scan.

Full-on comedy seems King's strong suit, with elaborate set-ups and deadpan punch lines a common and pleasing function of their TV work. For Tuborg, an elevator stranded mid-floor raises tensions until one man steps forward, gathering items like a Swiss Army Knife and beer and raising hopes. Then he sits down and starts drinking his Tuborg while his would-be rescuees gape on.

King works extensively in TV, coping with small budgets (Hollingworth estimates the typical Swedish ad budget is 1.5 million Swedish kroners, or about US$150,000) in typically collaborative Scandinavian fashion.

"We have meetings a week before we present something to clients with at least two creatives and two strategic people there; that's the creative direction," says Hollingworth, who despite his senior position is not creative director (no one at King holds that title). Hollingworth hopes King will continue to make spots differing from typical Swedish advertising.

"I am really sick of the typical Swedish ad thing that looks like a documentary or is supposed to have a non-advertising look; it feels pretty sad," says Hollingworth. "I used to look a lot at what was being done in England, but now it feels like America has taken the lead in both the idea and production."

Another Stockholm start-up is Blond Swedish Amateurs, opened in July 2000 by copywriter Peter Laurelli and art director Oskar Bard.

"We wanted a name that would attract clients with courage and that would not attract some other clients, it's like a filter. We looked at different erotic home pages to look for names. Amateurs do it for fun, not money, and while we are expensive, we do advertising for the fun," says Bard when asked about the double meaning behind his agency's name. "Other agencies are more like insurance companies: clients buy safety from them instead of creativity. They go to this expensive office and the agency talks bullshit until the clients sleep and then they steal their wallets."

Bard and Laurelli previously worked at Stockholm's Mamne & Co. but left to start Blond Swedish Amateurs in Bard's garage when Mamne was bought out by a larger fish in the ad sea. Already, the Amateurs have delivered not-so-amateur work for a number of clients, including RIX FM and Finanstidningen.se.

"Hard to Fall Asleep" for RIX FM was shot for roughly $US3,500 without a director, only the Amateurs, stunt coordinators and photographer Simon Cederqvist. A single shot of a couple quietly reading in bed is ended abruptly when the woman pulls an aluminum bat from beneath the bed and bashes first her husband and then herself into unconsciousness. The spot promotes a RIX contest to win a new bedroom set. "Get the Flag in the Minefield" is another RIX spot depicting a contest wherein the winner receives 100,000 kroners if he can retrieve a flag from the middle of a minefield. After a contestant is blasted, it is suggested RIX might be an easier venue through which to win such large sums. The ad was directed by Adam Berg of Stockholm's Jarowskij.