Reykjavik's famous Harpa concert hall features in the promotional video for Rhode Island. Photo / iStock
Reykjavik's famous Harpa concert hall features in the promotional video for Rhode Island. Photo / iStock
Rhode Island tourism officials want you to imagine a place that feels like home - if you're from Iceland.
A tourism video designed to draw visitors to the state was yanked off YouTube on Tuesday after eagle-eyed viewers complained it showed a scene shot in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik.
The state released the video at a meeting on Monday night and posted it online on Tuesday for a new campaign.
The video's intro features a skateboarder outside a glass building and has a narrator saying, "Imagine a place that feels like home but holds enough uniqueness that you're never bored."
People on social media said: Hey, that's not Rhode Island - that's the Harpa concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavik.
Designer Greg Nemes visited Iceland in October and said he recognised the photogenic building, which has a steel framework and an exterior skin of differently coloured glass panels.
"It was pretty unmistakable to me, so I did some digging around and posted on Facebook about it," he said.
Social media users agreed with him, posting side-by-side photos of the building in the Rhode Island ad and Harpa.
A Rhode Island Commerce Corporation spokeswoman, in confirming later Tuesday that the building in the state's tourism ad is Harpa, said an editing company used the wrong footage.
"As the Commerce Corporation put this presentation video together, explicit instructions were given to the local firm that helped with editing to use only Rhode Island footage," spokeswoman Kayla Rosen said. "A mistake was made. Once the mistake was identified, the video was removed."
She said the video, which cost US$22,000 ($31,730) to make, is being updated at no cost to the Commerce Corporation or the state.
