England, the country that invented soccer, was just dumped out of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament by Iceland, a tiny island nation in the north Atlantic ocean with a population about the size of the city of Cleveland. It comes just days after the UK voted to leave the European Union, sending the pound into a tailspin, erasing trillions from the stock market, and leading some to already regret their decision to vote for Brexit.
But another Iceland, a grocery-store chain in the UK once majority-owned by two failed Icelandic banks, has taken the momentous occasion and used it for some perfectly timed marketing.
The grocery store chain has been Tweeting some excellent tweets, trying to highlight the impartiality of the company—which now has UK and South African owners—as England tuned in to watch what many would have hoped was some international solace after a rough weekend.
But it was not to be.
England took an early lead after a penalty in the fourth minute, but then gave up two quick goals after just 18 minutes, and couldn’t break back through Iceland’s frigid defense. Iceland the store tried to remind customers that it wasn’t to blame.
And tweeted a veiled grocery store-related joke about England’s unexpected loss at the final whistle.
Reiterating that it is in fact a purveyor of frozen foods, rather than the national soccer team of the island nation.
Some England fans also seemed to have used the company’s bags as a cheap, quick solution to changing allegiances as the game wore on: