08 January 2005 @ 05:38 pm
Declaring War on the King of Sweden  
635 of 697 entries... 91%

There's the guy Jeff I work with, real smart guy. Has a past, though. One of the things he told me about from his college was too strange not to share. He told me this story after I told him were my relatives lived.

He and his friends declared war on Sweden.

No, really. It started when one of his friends wanted to start a Scrabble group, and I forgot what the name was, but the initials were SAAB. So he tried to register saab.com, only to find it was taken! By a Swedish car manufacturer, even! Well, he got mad, and while slightly drunk, declared war on Sweden. He wrote this letter, formally declaring war on Sweden, and sent it to the Swedish Embassy, The King of Sweden, and SAAB headquarters in Sweden. The letter outlined their rage at the name SAAB being stolen, and said that they would get their Navy, which consisted of three college guys and a canoe, row to Sweden (which they anticipated would take a few months), and attack in one of Stockholm's harbors after they had a bite to eat.

A few months later, they got a box from Sweden. It was from the SAAB headquarters, and it had a letter of its own. SAAB said that they were sorry the name had been taken, and hoped the package arrived before their Navy departed. The explained that SAAB didn't just make cars, but engines for military aircraft, and hoped that their contribution of an air force to their Navy war on Sweden would be taken as a formal apology.

The package contained about 100 of those "ready-to-assemble" balsa wood kits of rubber-band driven airplanes. With the SAAB logo, of course.

That is really cool! I am glad to say the people at SAAB have a good sense of humor.
Tags: ,
 
 
( 21 comments — Leave a comment )
montuosmontuos on January 10th, 2005 01:00 am (UTC)
Nø, realli?
That is just a wonderful story!
Skyepagawne on January 12th, 2005 04:10 am (UTC)
I laughed until I choked. That was too funny for words.
Lionesselisem on January 14th, 2005 09:02 pm (UTC)
Oh, that is great! I hope you don't mind if I link to it; that's too good not to share.
justcallmebethy on January 14th, 2005 09:22 pm (UTC)
Oh that's just wonderful. It's great when companies will play along, instead of taking it seriously!
Nathandrakenfly on January 14th, 2005 10:03 pm (UTC)
Now these guys have their own air force too.
(Anonymous) on September 21st, 2009 07:30 pm (UTC)
SAAB It´s an abreviation
And it means Svenska Aeroplanfabriken Aktie Bolaget, or in English
Swedish Airplanefactory Ltd.
They are makers not only of engines but of a long line of fighterjets.
But it´s a good story though.

http://www.gripen.com/en/index.htm
(Anonymous) on September 23rd, 2009 07:00 pm (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
Yes, except aktiebolaget is one word, not two. Stop mangling my language.
(Anonymous) on September 25th, 2009 06:30 pm (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
sounds like a reason to declare war! Stop the abuse of my language!
(Anonymous) on September 25th, 2009 06:47 pm (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
sounds like a reason to declare war! Stop the abuse of my language!
(Anonymous) on November 11th, 2009 05:15 pm (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
If all countries' residents whos language the americans mangle, they'd be hugely outnumbered ;P

/Dave (mangling the english since 3rd grade)
(Anonymous) on December 1st, 2009 02:19 pm (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
its not an abreviation... its an acronym.
(Anonymous) on April 15th, 2010 05:01 am (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
Yeah, I;m form Canada and they even manage to mangle ours...
(Anonymous) on May 31st, 2010 11:49 am (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
We speak the same language! Unless you're French Canadian... I don't speak French, but I'd pretend to be able to at a mall to confuse people :p
(Anonymous) on November 10th, 2010 06:45 am (UTC)
Re: SAAB It´s an abreviation
I'm an American (and proud) but I must correct you on this one... What we speak must be considered American, English's bastardized cousin.
(Anonymous) on October 13th, 2009 12:33 am (UTC)
saab
Great cars, fighterjets and sense of humour. Also: great article!
(Anonymous) on October 21st, 2009 05:07 pm (UTC)
Re: saab
:) yup these things happen.
(Anonymous) on October 21st, 2009 11:01 pm (UTC)
That's a great story! I'm glad that they played along, it made it so much funnier. It's nice to see a big company with a sense of humor.
(Anonymous) on November 2nd, 2009 01:30 pm (UTC)
Declaring War on the King of Sweden
Cool story. This is like the book Silly Beggar by James Spence. The author wrote tons of funny/bizarre/stupid emails to companies and got sent loads of freebies! He mostly got t-shirts but he got a whole bunch of other things too.
(Anonymous) on January 19th, 2010 09:40 pm (UTC)
Yeah, but..
Cool story. But SAAB doesn't make the engines, they make the planes.
(Anonymous) on August 6th, 2010 09:05 pm (UTC)
Re: Yeah, but..
why correct it when it's right, they make everything on the plane, wings, cockpit, computersystem, radarsystem and engine
(Anonymous) on January 17th, 2011 02:18 pm (UTC)
gemwpxde hgho
osmm qsjin xnxx (http://www.miasporn.com) cjvxei z gv e son
( 21 comments — Leave a comment )