2017 swept the #metoo call around the world. Not least in Sweden, it tore up a storm of emotions and stories that left few unaffected when women in different positions openly talked about men's discrimination and abusive treatment.
In front of the TV channels, entrepreneur Bo Westerling sat and immediately felt that something big was going on. The idea was quickly put into action and on October 17, 2017, Bo - just a few days after the discussion began to gain momentum - for a patent on the trademark of the Norwegian Patent and Registration Office. And he got green light from the Swedish government.
Now he plans to launch a jewelry collection that he hopes will create the conditions for the change work.
- To succeed in registering #metoo as a brand, I consider it a canon idea. A brand, #metoo, a complete jewelery collection with its entire existence from everything Metoo stands for. He changes attitudes, opinion formation, breaking gender norms and power structures, he tells SVT News.
His vision for the brand also includes long-term expansion abroad. He is the only person in the world who has been granted a patent for the #metoo brand.
- The brand could reach enormous heights as I am the only one in the world who has been granted a patent with #metoo. Some Americans got nobs for a variety of reasons and some jumped off their registration attempts, he says.
But he is also aware that it can be a special brand to manage. An outstretched hand to feminist profile Cissi Wallin was answered with a chilly post on Instagram. But Bo is more interested in what one can do than go into polemic with the profiled feminist.
- Now I lead discussions with talented women and men who want #metoo to really create as good donation opportunities as possible for organizations and movements that engage in issues such as equal opportunities for everyone, preventive work against sexual violence and harassment and all that caused 70,000 people to revolt against.
"I want to see change for real" How do you see your role in a future project for the brand?
- Economy is what becomes the bitter truth of reality, you can think what you want. But this is where I would like to help an organization manage this. If you really want to make a difference, you have to make money from what you do.
#Metoo feel like a special brand to own?
- Of course, it is a controversial topic so obviously it will storm around it from every angle. But, my vision of contributing as well as possible to these organizations through a brand-wide variety trumps the alternative, that 20 separate actors throw their own gadgets on their own and sell through their social media. It gets sprawling and no leverage effect. I want to see change for real.