Toronto Tourism Ads - Edgy? Um, . . . . not quite!

According to the Toronto Star, Toronto’s Live With Culture campaign has developed and “placed a series of four ads in alternative weeklies in eight U.S. border cities: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, N.Y., Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and Pittsburgh.”

These tourism ads are dubbed as being edgier and more risque than the usual fodder put out by large cities, but in this humble resident’s opinion, they’re about as vanilla as they come.  With tourism in Toronto still rebounding to some extent after the recent SARS crisis, as well as the recently implemented passport regulations, a more concerted effort by the city’s various marketing bodies is certainly warranted. 

According to Program Manager, Gregory Nixon, “People thought Toronto was clean and safe but not particularly sexy. It didn’t have much of an edge about it. It was kind of a lukewarm response. And that’s not really going to get people driving across the border.”

Although Gregory had the right idea, he came up woefully short in the delivery.  With tourism and destination advertising across North America growing increasingly competitive, I would look for the marketing campaigns to accordingly grow sexier, edgier, and more provacative.  But if Toronto is any indication, it might just happen a little slower than expected.

View the article in the first link, and check out the new adds in the second.