The capital of Finland, Helsinki, invited Canadian-American model and actress Pamela Anderson (58), a "sex symbol" in the 1990s when she was a global star of the TV series "Baywatch", to visit because she spoke about her "Finnish roots" - how close she was to her Finnish grandfather, and expressed her desire to take his surname Hiittijainen.
Anderson spoke to the Scandinavian edition of Vogue magazine late last year about the significance of her relationship with her grandfather Herman and Finnish - "the magical language they shared", which as a child she believed no one else understood.
"He was the closest person in my life," Anderson said.
Finnish public broadcaster YLE reported that Helsinki issued a public invitation to Pamela Anderson to come and "take the surname" in the form of a humorous feature video that immediately sparked great interest on social media.
The film "Action: Let's Make Pamela Hijtijainen" - an invitation for Pamela Anderson to come, is also a marketing campaign that promotes Helsinki as a place for tourist visits and investment, as it is accompanied by a tourist guide called "24 Hours in Helsinki as Pamela Hijtijainen".
The city and its partners have provided 110.000 euros for the campaign, 60.000 of which went towards the production of a video starring a famous Finnish actor and 50.000 for marketing and social media. The film was seen by more than half a million people in its first days, and has also attracted great interest abroad, YLE reports.
However, Pamela Anderson's roots are not in Helsinki, but in Saarijarvi, a town with fewer than 9.000 inhabitants in central Finland, 350 kilometers north of Helsinki.
Bonus video:
