Last week the website karlmennogkrabbamein.is collapsed due to overload and had to be relocated to a new server for larger websites.
A screenshot from the campaign’s website.
A campaign called “Mottumars” (“Moustache March”)—where men are encouraged to grow moustaches and post pictures of themselves on the website—is the reason for its popularity.
The campaign is intended to raise awareness of and funding for cancer research among men, similar to when people buy and wear pink ribbons to support breast cancer research—only with a more masculine touch.
“The turnout has been incredible—last week 64,000 people visited the website. Since it was launched page views are close to one million and around 2,000 individuals and 384 teams have registered and uploaded lots of funny pictures,” Gústaf Gústafsson, marketing and fundraising director of the Icelandic Cancer Society, told visir.is on Tuesday.
“There is a widespread and uplifting competition spirit on the moustache web, as can be seen through the 11.5 million [USD 91,000, EUR 66,000] that have already been collected in donations,” Gústafsson added. Since then the amount has grown to ISK 13.5 million.
Karlmennogkrabbamein.is is currently the tenth most popular website in Iceland. The moustache fashion has spread quickly among Icelandic men; even Finance Minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon seems to be participating, judging by this news broadcast.
