Stephen Colbert is not relenting in his effort to tweet for the @Sweden.
See the June 18, 2012 Colbert Nation episode
The @Sweden account is the official Twitter account for Sweden (via the VisitSweden people) and its curator changes every week. It’s uncensored and for the weekly curator, pretty much anything goes.
The account got international attention last week when its curator tweeted what was long debated as potentially anti-Semitic. A fantastic blogger, The Digital McGyver gives a very interesting analysis of the “Sonja-what-the-fuzz” tweet and its rippling effect across the globe (it’s a great read.)
So far, despite the onslaught of incoming emails and trending hashtags, the future @Sweden blog/Colbert is still but a distant maybe.
In true Swedish fashion, nothing can deviate from the path, not even to capitalize on the free marketing the guest curator account was designed to manifest. Hello Visit Sweden! Go crazy. Try something new. Live a little.
And bring on Colbert!
Tags: digital mcgyver, Operation Artificial Swedener, stephen colbert, sweden, Visit Sweden
As a Swedish man, I was highly offended by Colbert and his programme. Incidentally, I have an attractive and naive girlfriend, eat more fish than most people see in a lifetime, and have no sense of humor to speak of whatsoever.
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I really really really want Colbert to be the curator! You can’t deny that him doing it would be beneficial to Sweden. Just since he mentioned the whole Twitter thing, that Twitter account has gone way up in followers.
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@Me, let’s cross our fingers and hold our thumbs.
I would like to see “officials” in Sweden just once act on impulse and say, “Let’s give this a shot”…
After all, what can it hurt? It can only boost Sweden’s visibility. And as Colbert says, “Maybe someday Americans can find it on a map”
/BB
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@Artificial Swedener:
As a Swedish man, you should redirect your offense towards Sonja, who has brought far more shame to your country than you appear to appreciate. Colbert, by contrast, is a comedian and satirist.
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If the people behind @Sweden allow Colbert to take over then the @sweden project is as good as done. The whole concept is that it’s supposed to be regular Swedes in Sweden giving the rest of the world a little glimpse into their lives, as luck would have it, being regular swedes in Sweden. I’d like to ask Colbert what about this is so difficult to grasp, by all means petition the American government to allow the creation of an @USA/even your state senator @Washinton for such a copycat account, why try & hijack something thats successful for a country thats nothign to do with you? Ah…*Cue the anti-american-super-power dig* because you’re American & feel somehow entitled to it? vad fanden.
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@SJ Naylor–
You do realize that VisitSweden, one of the groups behind @Sweden, is supposedly involved in marketing the Swedish brand and promoting Sweden as a tourist destination, right? Their website says they “[work] to promote the brand of Sweden and the Swedish destinations and experiences internationally.”
If #artificialswedener had been a collaboration between VisitSweden and Colbert, it would have been a stunningly brilliant public relations/publicity campaign. Instead, it seems that Colbert took it upon himself to lavish a massive amount of publicity on Sweden and the @sweden Twitter handle, both through his own show as well as all of the other blog posts, tweets, news articles and broadcast media stories. The least VisitSweden and the Swedish Institute could have done would have been to play along and let Colbert have @sweden for a week. It would have sparked more interest in Sweden–and Sweden as a tourist destination–than they could ever have hoped to garner on their own.
Colbert did a week’s worth of shows on location in Afghanistan a while back. Would it not be hard to image him doing a series of shows from Sweden where he visits various Swedish landmarks/historical sites/tourist destinations, all the while tweeting his experiences? You can’t buy that kind of publicity.
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in order for a Swedish establishment to do something like that, Colbert would have to first do it for every other country in Western Europe. Swedes are terrified of originality. Conform only policy. Plus he’s Catholic and not an antiSemite and in Sweden, such a person would not do!
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#happyAmerican; What you wrote on July 14, (which was 35th Birthday of the Swedish Crown Princess’ Victoria and French National Day), is totally correct.
As I had been living here since 1981, I had realized that Swedes are still believing that only thing which is correct, is, if they invented it.
Nothing from outside suit them.
As ex. the Picture for Swedish Passport, Swedish Driving License and to the newly invented and by the Swedish Government issued Identity Card.
Swedish Authorities said that the Picture must be taken from front, it must be both ears visible and he said that it is Regulated by EU.
I checked it from Bruessel and found out that it was NOT regulated by EU Comission, or any EU affiliated Organisation there.
Then that person in the ID Card issuing office said, that it should be so, as then it better show’s persons facial contoures.
Bollock, how about womens, who have longish hair which may covers their ear/ears?
This is only one of the Swedish oddities, there are so many “swedish specialities” that I can’t write all of them here.
Now about Mr Colbert, an American Catholic, who had his satirical Show in the TV, in USA, and after that, it got a World-wide publishing.
Just like you wrote, VisitSweden and @sweden will never let him do any promotion-campaign for or on behalf of Sweden, in their pages.
Simply because he’s NOT swede, and as he’s also a Catholic, and NOT anti-semite “serious” person.
I like swedes and Sweden, despite these weather conditions, one day is raining, couple of days it’s sunshine. Just now it’s raining like “h**l.”
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I live in Australia and *I* heard about Sweden through Colbert. If you want Sweden to attract tourists, letting Colbert run the account for the week would give you untold publicity. That is the idea, right?
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@Ben. I don’t speak for the people at @Sweden or Visit Sweden, but I am pretty sure they gave this considerable thought and probably had discussions with Colbert’s people.
Personally, I totally agree with you and think Colbert’s “takeover” for a week would give Sweden excellent and positive exposure. However, I can sympathize with their decision since they probably don’t want to “sell out” their project either. I don’t think Colbert was willing to come to Sweden for the time he could be in control of the account.
But, welcome to Sweden, even without Colbert!
/BB
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