Makers of Botched RI Tourism Vid Have a Laugh: "We Chose Iceland Because it's Dope"

RHODE ISLAND—The advertising company that produced the now-infamous Rhode Island tourism promotion video that featured a clip of a skateboarder in front of a concert hall in Reykjavik, Iceland, is having a laugh about it on April Fools' Day.

IndieWhip released a video, "Going All in on Rhode Island" on April 1 that jokingly suggests the producers of the original video inserted the skateboarding clip on purpose in the hopes of the video going "viral."

"We chose Iceland because frankly, it's dope," said Brian Bruzzi, a co-founder and executive producer at IndieWhip, in the video.

IndieWhip, which was paid about $20,000 to produce the original video, apologized on Thursday for including the Icelandic footage. The company was instructed by the state to remove the footage after sharp-eyed Rhode Islanders spotted the Harpa concert hall and conference center about 10 seconds in.

The video was promptly yanked from YouTube after the discovery.