Sweden Just Got Its Own Phone Number. A Funny Thing Happened When We Called It

Country embarks on another fun and risky tourism stunt

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In 2012, VisitSweden launched a unique tourism campaign online. It handed off the country's official Twitter handle, @Sweden, to ordinary Swedes—and let them post more or less whatever they liked. Very quickly there were problems with provocative posts, but the country—convinced that transparency had more upsides than downsides—stuck with the "Curators of Sweden" program, and it continues today. (It was also widely celebrated in the ad industry, winning the Cyber Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012 for agency Volontaire.)

Now, a similar campaign aims to translate that same kind of experience to the telephone.

Sweden just became the first country in the world with its very own telephone number.

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