More Than You Can Chew?
When I first saw it the other night, I didn’t believe it at first. Was that a tourism ad for the USA? Talk about a scary place-marketing assignment. Scary because there is so much to work with. How do you sell something so diverse, large and un-definable as… America. The print, web and video ads released in May were created by Brand USA, a partnership of government agencies and private companies. The consortium was developed to act like the tourism ministries of countries such as Ireland, Italy or Israel. This is the FIRST tourism marketing campaign for the U.S. Of A. Ever.
The launch ad in the campaign struggles to string together imagery that defines America for those in other countries who may have the U.S. on their tourism consideration list. Notice I use the word struggle. It’s a lovely ad, but it left me feeling a little under-whelmed because I – and I would bet many others – have a vision of America that is so large and distorted that a TV ad could not possibly encapsulate everything that is that country. The Roseanne Cash cameo is cute. But that opens up another can of worms – what is American music? Jazz, Rock N’ Roll, Blues all call America home. It’s a microcosm of the bigger issue: some things will be missed, overlooked even. I wish them luck though. Bloody glad we didn’t have to worry about getting the assignment. What do you think of the campaign? Let us know.
