Last month, Icelandair launched a social media campaign that takes a tongue- in- cheek look at whether Iceland is “real” as opposed to AI-generated. The “Expedition Iceland” campaign was developed by social-first agency Kubbco in partnership with Icelandic agency Hvíta húsið.
The two-minute film (below) follows a fictional online conspiracy theorist who doesn’t believe that Iceland is real, and confidently shares his views with his followers. Because how could its spectacular landscape with volcanoes, hot springs, lava fields, geysers, Northern lights, and puffins possibly be real.
His sister, who is confident in her knowledge that Iceland is indeed real, tries to prove it to him by taking him there. Informing her brother and a quirky third character that Iceland has an airline, her brother replies sarcastically: “Great, is it called ‘Icelandair’?”
As the group travels to Iceland, our hero remains sceptical, asking distrustful questions such as “If we really are in Iceland, where is all the ice?” and pointing out that they must be in the world’s largest warehouse watching a green screen because there are no trees and “trees don’t grow on green screens”.
Throughout the film, the trio explores the beautiful Icelandic landscape, and while our conspiracy theorist friend argues that the puffins are robots and the hot springs are really just hot tubs, his conviction appears to wear off towards the end, when his sister encourages him to tell his followers that Iceland is a real country.
However, still wearing his T-shirt with the slogan “Iceland is AI-generated”, he changes his mind, grabs the phone and runs off, repeating his stance that Iceland isn’t real.
The film ends with a narrator saying the tagline “Iceland. It’s real.”
The campaign launched on November 10th and will run across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and the Icelandair website for four to six weeks. Additional fun content is expected to be rolled out, with details still to be confirmed.
Gísli Brynjolfsson, Director of Marketing, Icelandair, said: “In these both strange and wonderful times, where AI is everywhere, we wanted a fun and culturally relevant way to show people that Iceland is as real and stunning as it gets. Kubbco instantly understood the mission and brought forward an idea that speaks the same language we all use online: playful, curious, and a little mischievous.”
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