Jacinda Ardern and Rhys Darby star in New Zealand ‘map conspiracy’ tourism ad

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby have joined forces for a new tourism campaign exposing a “conspiracy” to keep the island nation off the map.

In the video, Darby phones Ardern - whom he refers to variously as “Cindy”, “your highness” and “milady” - to warn her that New Zealand has vanished from many world maps.

The comedian suggests that international actors could be behind the omissions - Australia “stealing our tourists”, “sneaky Frenchies” conspiring to hide New Zealand wines, and England “trying to get rid of the All Blacks once and for all”.

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“We’re quite a fiddly-looking shaped country, a bit like a half-eaten lamb chop,” he adds. “Perhaps people are just leaving us off, thinking we’re a mistake?”

The video ends with Ardern pledging to take action - with help from New Zealanders.

Tourism New Zealand’s #getszonthemap campaign is inspired by a real phenomenon that has not gone unnoticed by Kiwis.

The island’s remote location 900 miles east of Australia means it is frequently omitted from designs featuring maps of the world in everything from Risk boards to John Lewis tablecloths.

A Reddit message board dedication to recording instances where New Zealand is left off the map has 40,000 subscribers, sharing hundreds of examples.

One particularly egregious omission can be found on the New Zealand government’s own websites, whose error pages display an NZ-free world maps.

It is not the only online conspiracy concerning New Zealand’s place on the map.

The island’s position relative to Australia is a frequent example of the Mandela Effect - a false memory phenomenon in which many people claim to “remember” something which never occurred.

An online community has sprung up to share “evidence” that New Zealand was previously depicted as being north-east rather than south-east of Australia.