President Donald Trump called Norway a “shithouse country” after failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Norway’s tourism officials decided to take that as a compliment.
Visit Norway, the Scandinavian country’s tourism agency, responded to Trump’s insult with a cheeky campaign celebrating its spectacular public restrooms, declaring that Norway makes “shithouses great again.”
The campaign features some of the country’s most architecturally impressive toilets, many situated along scenic routes overlooking fjords, mountains and waterfalls. Some have even won international design awards.
Trump delivered the insult last Sunday during a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, while complaining about the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded earlier this month to international jurist Navi Pillay.
“Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” Trump told supporters. He also suggested he no longer wanted Norwegian immigrants coming to the United States because he had not received the prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by an independent Norwegian committee, not the country’s government.
Rather than engage in a diplomatic spat, Visit Norway embraced the president’s characterization, promoting restrooms that include the award-winning Stegastein viewpoint toilet overlooking Aurlandsfjord and the triangular Golden Toilet on Senja Island.
The agency repurposed material originally developed for World Toilet Day, which falls on Nov. 19.
The response has been an unexpected tourism success.
According to travel industry publication Skift, Visit Norway’s toilet webpage attracted more than 80,000 views from over 170 countries in five days, with traffic surging to more than 540 times the previous week’s level. Roughly a quarter of visitors were American.
The tourism agency spent less than $10,000 promoting the campaign, with approximately 90% of its traffic arriving organically. A Times Square advertisement was also planned for this weekend.
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The campaign marks a reversal from Trump’s first presidency, when he disparaged Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” while expressing a preference for immigrants from Norway.
Now, Norway is making the most of its presidential publicity, inviting visitors to discover some of the world’s most scenic places to answer nature’s call.
Read more
about Trump and the Nobel Peace Prize
