AN ONLINE tweet that was “just a bit of fun” telling people to mask up in Wales has gone viral across the globe and is now being printed out and put up in shops the length and breadth of Wales.
Social media guru Owen Williams said he was fed up with people coming to Wales and not realising there were different Covid rules here.
The post was something he knocked up in 20 minutes on Friday night but it has already been seen by six million people around the world.
He said: “It was 20 minutes of abject faffing on a Friday night. I do social for a living, I know how social works, I know how to make things go viral.
“When I put together this poster it was just a reactive poster to things I was seeing and hearing and the worries people had about Monday and England’s “freedom day” and how there was no real focus on telling people, that it’s different.
Everyone is welcome here - but please follow our rules #WearAMask #diolch pic.twitter.com/xVZSQgZpBe
— Riley Sports (@RileySports) July 19, 2021
Launching a new campaign with the help of some Welsh mates (@OwsWills). Just a taster of the full separatist manifesto to come. Thank you Cymru. #FreeCork pic.twitter.com/TrIy9k4wrj
— Tadhg (@TadhgHickey) July 19, 2021
“We are a different country, I get fed up with this homogenisation of the UK as just one supposed country. It’s not a country, it’s a state. Britain is an island, and Wales, Scotland and England are countries.”
The poster has even entered the annals of history with the National Museum of Wales putting it in its digital archive.
Diolch! Thanks @OwsWills for allowing us to archive a digital copy of *that* poster for the Covid collection at @StFagans_Museum.
— Amgueddfa Cymru | National Museum Wales (@AmgueddfaCymru) July 20, 2021
Please take-part in the #CollectingCovid questionnaire to add your pandemic experiences to the national collection: https://t.co/wUKvClLMgk
😷 https://t.co/uRooHkq2XU
Owen Williams said: “That’s what has been in my head, it’s just a case how can I make people to think and get something shared. There was no tweaking, the line came straight out and lo and behold it went crazy.
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“It’s been six and a half million times on my Twitter account. There are loads of examples of it being taken up, in Canada, in Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand.
“The one in New Zealand was telling television stations there to stop talking about the UK as one homogenous entity, that it’s made up of four distinct governments.”
The Tweet has now gone into the real world with shop keepers asking for versions they can print and put in their windows.
The poster can now be seen already in Wrexham, Machynlleth and Aberystwyth amongst other places.
Owen Williams said: “Someone asked for a PDF version so I produced an A3 copy and gave them bleed margin and put them on a cloud account I have as posters. It has just happened organically and I’m desperate for people to send me their pictures of where they’ve seen them. Kiri Pritchard-Mclean the comedian sent me a picture of one on the door of Beaumaris Gaol which is great.”
He added: “People have put them up because it’s amusing and it’s that thing that marks us out as being a bit different. We should have a bit of pride in that difference.”
- This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.
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