Finland When you get close to Puolanka, you'll see signs on the side of the road that say, "Are you lost? Coming to Puolanka. You still have time to turn around."

"There are people who often dream about slamming the boards," said Tommi Rajala, 41, director of the Puolanka Pessimists Association, who built the signs.

Puolanka has turned pessimism into a brand. They organized a pessimistic festival, a musical and opened an online store selling satirical T-shirts. The videos depicting extreme pessimism Puolanka attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

Mayor Harri Peltola said that when he told the other Finns about his homeland, everyone mentioned pessimism. "Now when people hear pessimism, many people think of Puolanka," Rajala said. Why would a small, remote rural town accept such an unhappy brand? What does being a "global center of pessimism" mean to Puolanka?

Puolanka's dark brand emerged amid a demographic shift. Like many developed countries, Finland's fertility rate is declining and the population is aging. The Finnish National Institute of Statistics predicts that the population will begin to decline before 2031, raising concerns about the impact on social and health welfare systems.

Puolanka is one of the places most affected. Rajala describes it as "the most remote town in the most remote province in Finland". The town has about 2,600 residents, 37% more than 64 years old. The population has been cut in half since the 1980s and more and more young people are leaving for major cities.

Timo Aro, a demographic expert in Finland, says population change is creating winners and losers. Puolanka is one of the losers. "If you look at the numbers in Puolanka, they're pretty grim, no matter how you try to interpret them in a positive way," he said.

Rajala recalled the period in the early 2000s, when Puolanka was always referred to by the press with negative information. The "pessimistic movement" emerged as a response to being repeatedly called the town with the worst demographic status. The people of Puolanka thought, "Okay, we are the worst, but we will be the most interesting worst people in Finland."

On an afternoon of the week, the Puolanka center was quiet. A bus arrives 6 times a week from Oulu, the larger town is 130 km away. There are a few grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, and restaurants where locals gather to chat and drink coffee. Most residents work in services or agriculture.

Bookstore owner Jaakko Paavola, 63, joined the "pessimistic movement" as soon as it began to emerge in the mid-2000s. A "pessimistic evening" was held. Instead of buying a ticket, attendees must buy the ticket. "People come not only to watch the show but also to meet," Paavola said. "In the gloomy atmosphere, they said to their neighbors: 'Luckily you are still alive."

Nurse Riitta Nykänen, 60, recalled that when the first events were held, a man said that "there's nothing to be done here, so is pessimism". However, they developed the idea of forming a pessimistic group that organizes local events and even toured around Finland. Over the years, Nykänen has taken on the leading role in music videos and is a member of a band called "Grief Group".

After nearly a decade of operation, the pessimistic group initially disbanded in 2016 due to the lack of active members. But soon, Rajala, who grew up in Puolanka but lived nearly two decades in large cities and overseas, was hired by the town government. His job is to develop an online service, but he is also tasked with maintaining and developing a pessimistic brand to promote the town.

In the first video he made, Rajala took viewers to visit Puolanka with a satirical style. It received 200,000 social media views and the second video reached half a million views. "Typically, advertising is making things look better than they actually are," Rajala said. "The great thing about pessimism is that I don't have to lie."

Rajala no longer works for the town government, but still works part-time as a leader of the Pessimistic Society, a non-profit organization run mostly by volunteers. The organization operates on online store sales and events. They also receive funding from the town government and the EU for individual projects such as musicals. And they continue to produce videos.

One of the topics being explored is the relatively small number of women in town. In general, many women leave towns smaller than men and in Puolanka, men make up about two-thirds of the age group 20 - 29. In the video, young Niko scour the town to find women but do not see shadows. their shape. He signed up for the Tinder dating app but found no one but his mother. "This is not a profound joke," Rajala said, "but it is aroused from the idea that the only woman you meet in Puolanka is your mother."

Rajala believes there is much more potential to exploit pessimism in Puolanka. The social network has amplified its brand, the online store has received steady orders for T-shirts with slogans like "grumpy old man" and "fastidious people". The musical in the summer attracts audiences from all over the country. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience a public space dedicated to pessimism as they pass through the town center on their way to Lapland.

In the future, Rajala wants to see pessimists on magazine covers. However, they have not outlined a specific strategy. "We just did what we were happy about," he said.

"Many places like Puolanka are waiting for a big change," said Timo Aro. Some argue that the new trend of the world will be an anti-urbanization movement - many returning to the countryside to escape the noisy urban life - but this has not happened.

Mayor Harri Peltola is more hopeful. He believes that Puolanka's peaceful natural environment will appeal to some. The surrounding forests are filled with berries and mushrooms, while Hepoköngäs, one of Finland's highest waterfalls, is located right near the town. Fresh air and lots of snow.

Many people do not reside in town but they have small bungalows to visit here in the summer. During the holidays, the town population can nearly double. The challenge of the town is to make people aware of what they get while here. "You have to have something that makes people happy and I think that pessimism does a good job," he said.

Despite wanting to continue promoting the town, Rajala could not help but think of a gloomy prospect when the town was wiped out. "If you live here and keep dreaming about how Puolanka will get better, how many people will come here, you are fighting the windmill," Rajala said, emphasizing that those dreams are often lead to disappointment.