Miikka Keränen, a member of the Rovaniemi city council, has put out a call for Stockmann to give up the name _Hullut Päivät _(Crazy Days).The department store chain has used the name to represent its biannual sales campaign for the last 31 years. According to the Green Party member, the name belittles mental health problems and stigmatises patients.
Keränen, 26, published an open letter in his blog in the _Uusi Suomi _paper on Wednesday, where he asks that Stockmann as an "influential and well-known business bear the responsibility for the effects of its rhetoric."
Keränen says that many young people in Finland in particular suffer from psychological problems which exclude them from employment.
As a result, he asks Stockmann to rebrand and rename its campaign.
"Laughing about mental health problems should not be part of a corporate image in the 21st century," he adds.
Stockmann responded by sending Keränen a link to an article published in Uusimaa in 2016, where representatives of Finnish mental health associations said they did not consider Hullut Päivät an insulting name.
In the piece, Olavi Sydänmaalakka, executive director of the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health, said "there are no wrong words to avoid when talking about mental health."
"What matters is that we do talk about it."