Astronauts have the Nordic international locations to thank for the primary missions to the moon. And now, the Nordics are giving again.

“Apollo explorations of lunar volcanic terrain gained insights from publicity to the styles of newly fashioned volcanic rocks and constructions present in Iceland,” wrote Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt in his 2006 e-book Return to the Moon. “All of the lunar touchdown crews benefited from the examination of the various rock assemblages that resemble the complexities of the lunar floor.”

Extra lately—twice within the final two years, in truth—Iceland has had an analogous expertise with two tourism campaigns leaning on the identical idea. May or not it’s an odd otherworldly coincidence?

One nation, one concept

Go to Pleasure Iceland is a neighborhood tour operator that takes guests on day journeys across the nation. In 2021 it launched an internet movie known as “Iceland House Program” to advertise its companies that includes a space-suited “Bjorn” described as “the most recent astronaut to affix Iceland’s newly launched house program, created to assist guests discover unusual new worlds.”

All through the 1-minute movie, there are panoramic pictures of the nation wanting significantly lunar-esque. It additionally describes Bjorn as being good for not spending lots of of 1000’s to seek out the “alien landscapes he had been trying to find” and coming to Iceland as an alternative.

The movie ends with a space-suited Bjorn attempting to hitchhike throughout the nation whereas holding an indication that reads: “Take me to Iceland.”

Warp pace forward to November 2022 when the nation’s tourism board, Go to Iceland, launched its new marketing campaign. It appears significantly acquainted, albeit with increased manufacturing values.

Made to ship up the escapades across the billionaire house race of Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk, the “Mission Iceland” marketing campaign contains a disillusioned astronaut in a ready room, full with spacesuit, who explains to the viewers that his flight has been delayed after he’d spent thousands and thousands on the holiday to house.

He then goes on to clarify the advantages of taking a visit to Iceland as an alternative and is seen exploring these acquainted panoramic “lunar landscapes.”

“Being an enormous fan of SS+Ok’s previous Iceland movies, I used to be stunned when my shopper knowledgeable me fairly worryingly that the identical concept had been used. Not even simply the thought however among the storytelling components have been virtually the identical,” defined Chris Torres, founding father of the Glasgow-based Tourism Advertising and marketing Company, which produced the primary marketing campaign for Go to Pleasure Iceland.

“After a frank however pleasant chat, it actually does appear to be a easy case of fine inventive minds assume alike… even when it’s years and international locations aside,” he added.

“Whereas we acknowledge there are similarities between our video and the one created for Go to Pleasure Iceland, nobody on our group had seen this till it was delivered to our consideration following the launch of our marketing campaign,” mentioned SS+Ok govt inventive director Stevie Archer. “The similarities have been purely coincidental,” he added.

Archer had been working with Go to Iceland for 2 years on its collection of award-winning advertising campaigns, together with the Icelandverse, a spoof of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta launch movie.

And so it will appear to be simply that—a coincidence. That’s till Go to Norway chimed in with its personal space-themed tourism marketing campaign relationship again to 2020, earlier than both Iceland marketing campaign got here to life.

A document scratch second

Norway’s tourism board learn concerning the new marketing campaign in Adweek and adopted up with a tweet directed at Go to Iceland that learn: “That is floor management to main Iceland, please connect with Norway House Station.”

The tweet included screengrabs of its personal marketing campaign from 2021 alongside that of “Mission Iceland,” evaluating the 2.

In 2020, Norway launched its “Welcome to House” movie that offered panoramic views of the nation’s pure landscapes whereas evaluating them to different worlds. This was adopted by one other movie one yr later that referenced the billionaire house race and featured a vacationer in an area swimsuit (sporting what appears like a white crash helmet and sneakers) taking off in a ski carry. He enjoys a packed lunch and a crossword earlier than arriving on the high of a mountain to plant a flag whereas overlooking “Norwegian house.”

The message: “There’s loads of house for everybody!”

Katrine Mosfjeld, head of selling for Go to Norway, instructed Adweek that the preliminary concept for the marketing campaign, developed by inventive company Set off, was to spotlight the quantity of house the nation may present through the interval when Covid-19 lockdowns.

“We wished to present individuals the possibility to journey someplace with plenty of house and fewer crowds, limiting the possibility of getting contaminated and sick,” they defined.

To this point, there isn’t any proof that fellow Nordic nations Sweden, Denmark or the Faroe Islands have entered the terrestrial tourism house race, however we wouldn’t be shocked in the event that they did.

However the U.S. astronauts of the Sixties house race will at all times have Iceland to thank, simply as Harrison Schmitt remembers it: “The publicity of Apollo astronauts to the geology of Iceland contributed vastly to the expertise of Apollo astronauts as they ready for lunar exploration and sampling.”