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Emotions against IKEA are running high in Denmark, where researchers claim the wildly popular Swedish home furnishings company only names cheap doormats and wall-to-wall carpeting after Danish towns, reserving Swedish names for its more expensive furniture. The discovery has the proud Danes itching for revenge.

quote:
Two Danish academics, Klaus Kjöller of the University of Copenhagen and Tröls Mylenberg of the University of Southern Denmark, conducted a thorough analysis of the names used in the IKEA catalog. They concluded that the Swedish names are reserved for the "better" products, and that even Norwegian names manage to make it into the bed department. But the "lesser" products bear Danish names like "Roskilde" and "Köge."

"Doormats and runners, as well as inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting are third-class, if not seventh-class, items when it comes to home furnishings," Kjöller is quoted as saying in Nyhedsavisen, a Danish free paper. The stuff that goes on the floor, Kjöller said, is about as low as it gets. He accused the home furnishings company of "Swedish imperialism."



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"It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers, but pretends that they are great powers, in order to rekindle the ashes of its ancient emotion and vanity. After that, the next step is to become a small power itself."
--GK Chesterton, "Heretics"
 
Posts: 7495 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: February 02, 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Well, I guess they were jealous of Muslims having insanely stupid shit to get upset over, so they came up with their own victim shtick. The real question is: will all Swedish companies take to naming their doormats after Danish towns as a show of solidarity?


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Posts: 10571 | Location: Under a hat. | Registered: March 09, 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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They sure as hell better not call a toilet brush "Værløse"!

I still think it's hilarious that their best selling bookshelf of all time is called "Billy" which is a homonym to the Danish word "billig" which means "cheap"
 
Posts: 7426 | Location: Værløse, DENMARK | Registered: January 29, 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
I still think it's hilarious that their best selling bookshelf of all time is called "Billy" which is a homonym to the Danish word "billig" which means "cheap"


Same in German.

And you still think that is coincidence?



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Posts: 4266 | Location: Cyberspace | Registered: January 09, 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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