Norway answers Trump's insult with an ad campaign for its scenic public toilets

The insult

Donald Trump called Norway a vulgar term at a campaign rally in Michigan on Sunday, 25 October, a few days before the US midterm elections. He said he would not welcome immigrants from Norway because he had not received the Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier in October he had condemned the decision to give the prize to Navi Pillay, a former judge at the International Criminal Court, and called it a stain on Norway. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by an independent committee rather than by the Norwegian government, a point Oslo has repeated several times.

Visit Norway's reply

Norway's tourism body, Visit Norway, answered on its website with photographs of public toilets along the country's scenic routes. The page asks whether these are the best toilets in the world and riffs on Trump's campaign slogan by declaring that Norway is making toilets great again. The campaign adds that the toilets are worth a visit whether or not a traveller actually needs to use them. The toilets sit along 18 designated scenic routes, where leading architects were commissioned to turn ordinary roadside facilities into attractions in their own right. Several of them have since won international architecture awards.

The featured toilets

The Stegastein viewpoint in the Sognefjord region, which is solar powered, has large tinted windows that offer views of the fjord while keeping the interior private. It was previously included in a list of the 10 best public toilets in the world compiled by the magazine DesignCurial. The Ureddplassen pavilion on the Helgeland coast is described by The Telegraph as the most beautiful public toilet in the world. The campaign also features the Utsikten toilet, a modern solar-powered building, a facility at Tungeneset that is especially striking under the northern lights, and a "golden toilet" on the island of Senja. Visit Norway has also announced further projects, including a toilet inspired by the forest and built from dried wood taken from more than 60 trees.

Reaction

Jens Kjeldsen, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Bergen, told the broadcaster NRK that the response was well considered. He compared the situation to a bully in a kindergarten, arguing that the bully wins if the target takes the taunt too seriously. Evgenia Egorova of Visit Norway said the humorous reply attracted considerable attention on social media. She added that the organisation wanted to respond kindly and with humour, because the world needs a bit of laughter.