Rhode Island Official Resigns Over Iceland Kerfuffle

Rhode Island’s CMO has resigned after it came to light that a promo video for the state included a shot of Iceland’s Harpa concert hall.

The Boston Globe reports that chief marketing officer Betsy Wall has resigned just one week into a campaign to promote tourism in the state, Cooler and Warmer.

The campaign was reportedly not resonating with a lot of people, but matters came to a head when it came to light that a promo video for the state included 3 seconds of footage shot in front of Harpa, Reykjavík’s concert hall.

In the wake of the reveal, Betsy told reporters that the people contracted to make the video, IndieWhip, were specifically told to only shoot footage within Rhode Island itself.

“A mistake was made. Once the mistake was identified, the video was removed,” she told reporters at the time. “The video is currently being updated at no cost to the Commerce Corporation or the State of Rhode Island. As the campaign rolls out, we expect to make additional improvements and changes to our promotional materials.”

IndieWhip have also owned up to the mistake, and apologised to the entire state of Rhode Island for the “editing mistake”. They added that while the 3 seconds of footage were filmed in Iceland, the person skateboarding in the clip is from Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo told reporters yesterday that while they will drop the “Cooler and Warmer” tagline, they will keep the logo, as it was designed by the same person behind the famed I Love NY logo.