Sweden Did Not want to ‘Sell Out’ to Colbert.

In what many hailed as an unexpected and unusual move, Swedish officials told the US comedian that he could not take over the @sweden Twitter account on Wednesday after Colbert’s much publicized #ArtificialSwedener campaign.

Maria Ziv, the director of marketing of Visit Sweden, one of the organization’s behind the initiative, explained to The Local on Thursday that Colbert’s Twitter style, along with her agency’s fear of selling out, were the two main reasons behind the decision.

“We started this initiative to create a sense of closeness and a dialogue between the curator and the followers, in the aim of giving a perspective of Sweden and its culture,” she said, referencing the Curators of Sweden campaign.

“When we looked at Stephen Colbert’s official Twitter account, we saw that while he did have 3.6 million followers – he followed no one in return.”

She went on to explain that Visit Sweden ultimately had serious reservations about whether Colbert would be a good fit and what sort of signals a “yes” would have sent.

“He is a Twitter ‘broadcaster’ and this doesn’t align with our goals. Our decision was that we wouldn’t cave in and sell out, just because he’s famous. We decided that a Colbert takeover would have served him, not us,” she said.

Full Article: The Local – Sweden.