When President Rodrigo Duterte’s communications team made a blunder in calling Norway “Norwegia,” another Nordic country was surprisingly paying attention.
On its official Facebook account, the Embassy of Sweden’s social media team shared a caricature map of Europe that featured Sweden in the north and Switzerland in the south to help people who still can’t distinguish the two countries.
The embassy then added a quip in the post, “Fun fact: They are both nowhere near #Norwegia.”
Many users were quick to note that it was a subtle jab at a previous social media error of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, known for its many online slips.
The now-corrected Facebook post was about Duterte’s conferring of honors on outgoing Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines Erik Forner for his service.
You make us proud talaga, PCOO. pic.twitter.com/MWungxGJBE
— Daughter of Mindanao (@tessgarcia) July 4, 2018
Some even praised the communication team behind Sweden embassy for the witty caption.
Sweden and Switzerland: How to tell one from another
The need to create the artwork rose as teams from both countries were set to face off in the 2018 FIFA World Cup on June 3. The Swedish team won the match.
Those from other countries, Filipinos included, seemed to confuse Sweden and Switzerland as one and the same nation, according to Business Insider.
“Sweden is the peninsular country that serves you vegan meatballs while you go furniture shopping, where Switzerland is the Alpine country where IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad emigrated to feast on cheese, chocolate and a 0.0006% income tax rate,” the author wrote.
Official social media arms of both countries even took the time to share key differences between them a day before their match.
It is not because ?? and ?? are often confused, that we are the same! Let's vote for our differences!
For #Heidi make a retweet for #PippiLångstrump just like this tweet! #SWESUI #Swederland #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/BEoyTClwsa— Swiss Consulate NY (@SwissCGNY) July 2, 2018
The recent win of the Swedish national football team gives them their first World Cup quarter finals ticket since 1994, which would therefore be another difference with its Swiss counterpart.
