Trashing Toronto: Bad Idea but Good Publicity

Recently an ad campaign for Niagara Falls has been causing quite a stir in Canada. In brief, here's what it's all about (via CBC News)
"The Niagara Parks Commission is coming under fire for an ad campaign that portrays Toronto as a city riddled with noise, crime and gridlock. The commission is running four television ads and eight online videos in a campaign that calls on people to leave the stress of the Ontario capital behind and drive to nearby Niagara. The ad has already earned rebukes from Tourism Toronto, as well as a city councillor, Joe Pantalone, who has asked that the campaign be discontinued. The Niagara Parks Commission has said the campaign was meant to be light-hearted and not intended to offend anyone."

I have one of the videos embedded above for you'll to see. Obviously, the more feathers this seemingly innocent ad campaign ruffles, the more media exposure it will garner for Niagara Parks. At the same time, on a more subtle tone, the more people stand up to defend Toronto and rave about its good points, the better it gets for the city right? Win-win I say.

And on a side-note, I have been to the Niagara Parks and found it to be unbelievably crowded on both sides of the border and would never go there again. Toronto, on the other hand is a big city and like every big city in the world has its own advantages and disadvantages so trashing it seems kind of immature and silly even for the sake of some hard-to-come-by publicity.

Hotel Room in Melbourne - Free of Charge!

Yes, you heard right.

You can stay for free at the
Lost & Found Hotel Room in the heart of Melbourne. That's what I call aggressive promotion and I like it!

According to PSFK "Tourism Victoria-run e-newsletter Lost and Found recently added a hotel room to their venture, offering lucky subscribers the chance to experience Melbourne’s cultural offerings free of charge. Decked out in products exclusively made in Victoria, the furnishings, gourmet offerings, music, fashions and bath products all “tell a story about Melbourne as a city of creative people producing interesting things.”

Travel & Tourism Ads

Images via adsoftheworld - Click to enlarge

After my foray into travel writing and my recent visit to the NY Times Travel Show, I am looking a little more closely at travel ads. These ones by Swiss Tourism for instance have a neat layout, a clear message and the right colors. The creative idea isn't out of this world but it pretty much does the job, doesn't it?