ABSTRACT
The Nordic brand has experienced a great upsurge over the last 20 years within a range of areas that include design, cuisine, welfare and the focus of this book gender equality. In the interviews, it was made clear that the Nordic brand can carry elements of moral superiority, with the Nordics telling the world how things should be done. One Norwegian diplomat working especially with gender equality commented that the Nordic brand risked evoking moral superiority, making it beneficial to instead brand the ministry's gender focus as Norwegian, as she explained that the moral superiority was much more explicitly tied to the Nordic overarching brand than to the Norwegian. In presenting their individual country brands, the diplomats seemed mindful of the moral superiority label attached to the Nordic brand, and appear at times eager to emphasize that their national brands differ from that of the Nordic.
