Iceland is looking for tourists and they’ve got a plan to help you unplug from your devices when you visit. The campaign is called “OutHorse Your Email” and involves real Icelandic horses setting your out of office message. Just go to the website and choose a preferred horse. Each of the three options have different strengths, ranging from “trained in corporate buzzwords” to “shiny hair.” I chose shiny hair, of course, and my new OOO message is below.
The advertisement video above is quite charming. Since this is part of tourism site, there’s also a bunch of ideas for things to do while a horse answers your email. There’s also a behind the scenes video (below), which we saw on Boing Boing. In it, people craft the giant keyboard. Trainers familiarize the horses to walking across it. And then the magic begins!
If beautiful cinematography in TV shows like The Witcher and Game of Thrones wasn’t enough to convince you to visit Iceland, maybe these helpful horses will. It’s been on my list thanks to scenes in Rogue One, Oblivion, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty that were filmed there. But now that I won’t have to worry about work emails interrupting my vacation, maybe I’ll finally go.
For now, hopefully Nerdist will accept this response to my emails for the rest of the day:
Melissa Miller is out of office. During this vacation, Melissa has OutHorsed all work-related emails to an Icelandic horse called Hrímnir frá Hvammi to free up more time for adventure.
Here is Hrímnir frá Hvammi’s response: Qwsdcfrtgb fdfg jhlsajf vdpföð lkdsjahg bksdð adæfbnaqerbvui< i98oimdJVJ <0IÐ KVWE krjgi1ÆIÆ qwiik+ð‘h as whbl ppppppppppp lh
Pony express is the best out of the office message ever!
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
