After President Donald Trump called Norway a “shithouse country,” its tourism agency turned the insult into a marketing opportunity to promote its designer bathrooms.
Trump criticized Norway at a rally in Michigan on October 25 because he didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Disparaging the Nordic nation with a term he’s previously used for Haiti, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, Trump said he didn’t want immigrants from Norway. Now its tourism agency has turned the attack into a badge of honor with a website for the world’s best toilets that’s drawing eyes from across the globe.
While Visit Norway has had a web page about its public toilets for several years owing to their dramatic views and better than average design, the group changed the headline of the page to reference Trump’s comments and reshared it last week. It’s currently Visit Norway’s most popular page in most countries and has had 200,000 page views since Monday, while related social media posts have generated 5 million organic views so far, Visit Norway tells Fast Company.
The updated web page says “Norway makes shithouses great again!” and shows off some of the country’s most scene-stealing public accommodations across Norwegian Scenic Routes, a collection of some of the 18 prettiest drives in the country.
Among them are the Stegastein Lookout restroom, which looks out over a fjord, was designed by the architects Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen, and won a Norwegian National Construction Prize. The restroom at Ureddplassen, a seaside memorial designed by Haugen/Zohar Architects that honors those killed on a Norwegian submarine by a German mine during World War II, is housed inside a wave-shaped building made from poured concrete with frosted glass windows, and it’s been called “the world’s most beautiful public loo.”
“Along the Norwegian Scenic Routes, architecture and design are used deliberately to enhance the experience of traveling through some of Norway’s most dramatic landscapes,” says Visit Norway’s head of consumer marketing, Anne-Signe Fagereng. “Leading architects have designed rest stops, viewpoints, and public toilets that fit into the landscape. Many have won international architecture awards, and several have become attractions in their own right. Travelers come to see them, photograph them and, yes, use them.”
A well-designed stop takes pressure off nature, makes remote areas accessible to everyone, and turns a necessary break into part of the experience, she says.
What Visit Norway’s selected restrooms have in common is thoughtful architecture and prime locations, like the rest area at Flesefossen waterfall or the restrooms at Skjervsfossen, which has glass floors and windows that look out over a river and was designed by the architectural firm Fortunen. The Oslo-based firm Snøhetta designed its service building at a hill called Kvalhausen as if it’s coming out of the hill.
Americans marvel at the cleanliness of bathrooms at truck stops like Buc-ee’s or Maverick, but in Norway, the best public restrooms show what’s possible when a government really invests in their services. Norwegian Scenic Routes is run by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, or Statens Vegvesen.
Visit Norway says the updated site isn’t a political statement or broader criticism of anyone specifically—it’s just destination marketing. And it seems to be working. The tourism agency says it’s received many positive messages from Americans who say they want to visit. Now thanks to Trump’s comments, rest stops are on their to-do list.
