The purpose of this essay is to study how contemporary commercials work, especially with respect to irony, humour and stereotypes. As a basis for such a study, the television advertising campaign Norrlands Guld beer has been used as a representative example. We have first presented the theories and background facts that we have been using. Our most important tools are semiotics and Stuart Hall’s theories about encoding and decoding. This analysis is subdivided into a number of separate subsections, which focus on characters, activities, language, settings, music and sound. The Norrlands Guld campaign is ironic about the myths concerning Norrland. The message of the campaign is to relax and be yourself with a Norrlands Guld. This has been shown in an amusing way and in addition to adding commercial value, has also added entertainment value, to the campaign. In order to build brand recognition, the Norrlands Guld campaign has utilised humour and attitude, especially with respect to the use and manipulation of stereotypes. Stereotypes have been used at all levels of the commercial; the language, the clothes, the settings and the characters. As a result the campaign has a very ironic and humorous tone and depicts an exaggerated image of reality. We see such representations as indicative of contemporary aesthetics in advertising.