Scott King's nice new campaign claims all pop culture in the name of Berlin

There used to be a comedy on British TV called Goodness Gracious Me which had a sketch where an Indian father would tell his son that every public figure you could possibly think of – from the Queen to David Beckham – was in fact Indian. There was something very funny about his claiming credit for anyone and everyone, and I was reminded of that idea when I saw Scott King’s new campaign for the Pop-Kultur festival.

Previously called Berlin Music Week, the organisers of the three-day event approached Scott for a thorough rebrand, keen to make it less industry focussed and more experimental, public-facing, and credible. Scott’s solution was to help rethink the event as Pop Kultur and the accompanying campaign It Began In Berlin makes a series of brilliantly preposterous claims that everything from breakdancing to delta blues actually originated in the German capital.

As ever with this kind of joke, the execution is all-important and it’s the earnestness with which these claims are made that wins the day, particularly in the video spots directed by Scott and Sander Houtkruijer. There’s plans to roll this out further ahead of the August festival, perhaps through fake heritage plaques, but for now this sets a good tone for the campaign.