If Iceland’s stunning night skies, awe-inspiring waterfalls, and geothermal lagoons don’t inspire you to pay the country a visit, the nation’s tourism board has their fingers crossed that their cheeky (and frankly hilarious) advertisements might just change your mind. In their latest commercial, Iceland takes a shot at Mark Zuckerberg and his latest endeavor — the Metaverse — by calling out just how weird everything about both the man and the project are.
The advertisement kicks off by introducing a man named “Zack Mossbergsson” — a very obvious Zuckerberg parody complete with a turtleneck and one awkward haircut — who welcomes the viewer to the video’s “very natural setting” before saying he wants “to talk about a revolutionary approach on how to connect our world, without being super weird.” The ad then continues to poke fun at Zuckerberg’s more eccentric habits (like seriously overdoing it on the sunscreen), while talking about how great the “Icealandverse” is — namely because it’s real.
“Some said it’s not possible. Some said it’s out of reach. To them, we say, it’s already here. Seriously, look, it’s right here.”
Mossbergsson proceeds to then show off some of Iceland’s beautiful sites and attractions while accentuating the point that you can actually see and do them, unlike you can in the Metaverse.
While filled with lots of spoofs and jabs, the advertisement serves the very real purpose of attempting to get folks back to Iceland following the global pandemic. According to Gizmodo, prior to the pandemic tourism accounted for almost 9% of the nation’s GDP and was responsible for employing roughly 30,000 people. Like most countries, the nation’s tourism has taken an understandable hit since COVID-19, but now hopes that their waning number of cases, extremely high vaccination rate, and clever ads will encourage visitors to return.
Of course, Iceland isn’t alone in mocking Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. The concept is ripe for jokes and has been the bud of them for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, late night host Stephen Colbert, and literally everyone on Twitter. Looks like it might take more than a virtual Justin Beiber concert to help Zuckberg sell this idea.
