Is Iceland real?  

 That’s the question at the heart of a humorous new ad campaign from the country’s national airline, Icelandair.  

The main idea: the country’s spectacular landscape, with its volcanoes, lava fields, northern lights and more, is so unusual that it can’t possibly real.   

At least that’s the belief of the central character (and enthusiastic conspiracy theorist) in the campaign’s anchor spot, who believes the country is “AI-generated.”  

His sister, a firm believer 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 the country, the Iceland-denying brother remains skeptical, asking questions like, “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. Still the brother insists that puffins, the exotic birds that are native to the country, are robots, and that the hot springs are just hot tubs. But eventually his skepticism appears to be waning when his sister encourages him to tell his online 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 the narrator stating the tagline “Iceland. It’s real.”  

The “Expedition Iceland” campaign was developed by social-first agency Kubbco in partnership with Icelandic agency Hvíta húsið.  

The campaign launched on November 10 and will run across Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and the Icelandair website for up to six weeks.    

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.”