rigorousintuition.ca

I came across these ads totally by accident while looking at other stuff on Youtube. No biggie, but I found the contrast so striking:

Israeli Tourism Ad

Egypt Tourism Ad

Detroit Tourism Ad

Cleveland Tourism Ad

barracuda wrote:Detroit Tourism Ad

Ha!

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

JTA: More Zionist Pubic Diplomacy

I thought the Holocaust survivor cookbook hit the limit for crassness until the latest attempts to rebrand Zionism and the State of Israel.

Sex sells Israel part II: The ‘come to Israel’ condom

By Jacob Berkman · June 8, 2009

We noted last week that the Jewish Agency was trying to promote one of its programs last week with a series of racy ads.

We noted last winter that Israel’s Ministry of Tourism was using sex to sell Israel as a destination spot.

And we joked a few months ago that Birthright NEXT, which was giving out flasks to promote itself, should perhaps consider distributing branded condoms as well.

Someone is paying attention to the Fundermentalist, because we now present to you the official “Come and visit Tel Aviv” condom, brought to you once again by Israel’s Tourism Ministry.

No. I did not make up that slogan. It is the official catchphrase for condoms that Israel gave out at a fund-raising event in London last week, according to UPI.

My favorite passage from the story:

The condoms were packed in a box used by a reputable Dead Sea cosmetics firm, used to market cosmetics, the Web site said, quoting one of the agents. "Some thought they were beauty supplies and brought them home to their wives. They were appalled when they opened the package," another official said.

On its part, Israel's Ministry of Tourism issued an apology saying it will investigate the incident. "This was an initiative contrary to our policy," the statement said.

On second thought. Maybe we don't want any credit for this at all.

http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2009/06/jta-m ... omacy.html

Sorry, indignation is off-topic in the lounge.






T.O. to Americans: We're 'as gay as it gets'

Tourism Toronto announced plans yesterday to woo gay travellers in the U.S. -- by letting them know this city is "as gay as it gets."

Research shows gay Americans take more trips, spend more money on vacations and are more likely to have a passport compared to their heterosexual counterparts, according to Tourism Toronto.

Tourism Toronto has been working with the Gay Marketing Advisory Group, led by Councillor Kyle Rae, who said people will finally see the city as more than just friendly.

"The tag line 'Toronto: As gay as it gets' comes out of people talking about their cities as being gay-friendly. Toronto's not gay-friendly -- it's gay," Rae said.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007 ... 3-sun.html

"This was an initiative contrary to our policy," the statement said.

Cleveland wins.

"Toronto: Gay as it Gets," a close second.

But no one's going to beat a tourism industry that comes up with something as pithy as this:



or this:



Both of which have been adapted into versions for practically every other city in the world.

Of course, thanks to 14,000 hours of programming from Naked City to Kojak to CSI: Dead Debutantes, a lot of people think they'd rather watch it on TV than risk being murdered immediately after arriving in Central Park (where the ratio of TV murders to real ones is probably now up to 1000:1).

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