Iceland tourism ad expertly roasts Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse

Facebook’s Meta rollout/rebrand/deflection last month was as weird, uncomfortable, and perplexing as many anticipated... so much so that entire countries are now roasting the damn thing. A new, two-minute PSA put out by a tourism group in Iceland yesterday introduces us to “Zack Mossbergsson,” the “Chief Visionary Officer” of the Icelandverse who bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain uncanny Big Tech villain.

Does that technically make the promo meta-Meta...? No clue, but good Lord is the commercial incredibly cute and funny, not to mention extremely effective at making us want to hop a flight over to Iceland tomorrow. Check it out below:

So real you can practically touch it — “Hi, and welcome to this very natural setting,” Mossbergsson opens before introducing the world to the Icelandverse, a “revolutionary approach” in human connectivity. In other words, just going out and experiencing new places without the aid of AR/VR, not to mention the knowledge that Zuckerberg is breathing down your digital neck. “Enhanced actual reality without silly-looking headsets,” Mossbergsson explains. Consider us sold.

Convinced before we saw the ad — As great as the Icelandverse appears, it’s not like we really needed much convincing to stay the absolute hell away from all things Meta. Despite Zuckerberg’s attempts to assuage our fears, it’s hard to get amped for a product that is already backtracking on its promise to go easy on facial recognition tech, among our myriad other concerns. Time will tell if Meta actually delivers the revolutionary product it is promising, but we aren’t exactly expecting to change our minds anytime soon.

UPDATE: Facebook/Meta reached out to inform us that “Mark” (just Mark) both has seen and loves Iceland’s dunk video, and is not at all planning to buy the country for himself as retribution. “Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon. Glad you're wearing sunscreen too,” Zuckerberg commented on the video’s Facebook upload alongside a laugh-crying face emoji. If you are near the Iceland area, please consider evacuating immediately.