New Orleans axes 'we've survived the British before' advert after Guardian reveals that BP donation paid for it
Posted on 06/17/2010 10:58:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Alas, New Orleans has not survived the British after all. The city that saw off the Redcoats in the war of 1812 has surrendered to an article in the Guardian poking fun at an advertising campaign intended to stiffen the backbone of tourists worried about the BP oil spill.
The city's convention and visitors' bureau went with the slogan "This isn't the first time New Orleans has survived the British" over a picture of a statue of General Andrew Jackson, who led the US forces to a famous military victory in the Battle of New Orleans.
The Guardian noted the irony of the "anti-British" campaign being funded from a $5m (£3.3m) donation from BP. It said the advert made clear that the city holds no grudges for past wars or present disasters, saying: "Right now, everyone is welcome, especially our friends from England."
But while the visitors' bureau thought its advert funny, it appears to have had a sense of humour failure over the article. It has cancelled the campaign for fear of upsetting British tourists, who make up the largest contingent of foreign visitors to the city.
The bureau's president, Steve Perry, said the ads "were not anti-British at all" and blamed the Guardian coverage for forcing it to cancel any adverts "referring to anything British in every form".
"Already in our London office we've had multiple major cancellations because of the article," he said. "We've had to cancel the entire thing and we are moving to an ad that pokes fun at the president.
"We thought, with all the grief, we would try to turn things a little bit lighter and more tongue in cheek. So far, unfortunately, it has had devastating consequences that were not intended.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Frack the sissy Euro-bitches; where are they going to run when they’re run out of UK.
They’d have to pay me 3.3 million dollars to visit N’awlins.
Stupid campaign.
Plenty of AMERICANS were running that rig, too.
When BP lays off 30,000 Americans, maybe people will STFU and focus on correcting the problem.
What, you do not relish the idea of being “jacked” on Bourbon Street?
Yep.
My opinion of Louisiana continues to fall.
Lots of great people, but plenty of stupid ideas.
Well from a rock and roll perspective they may have survived the British Invasion, but Katarina and the Waves kicked the rear ends.
The ad can be seen in this week's Houston Press (alternative weekly free paper owned by Village Voice).
Xenophobia is only what the politically correct say it is.
They may have survived the British but can they (or any of us) survive the ineptitude coming from the White House.
Imagine wasting money that could have helped small businesses affect by the loss of tourism business.
There is no excuse at all for this madness.
Evidently when it’s not their money they don’t mind wasting it.
“Evidently when it’s not their money they don’t mind wasting it.”
When you didn’t work for it - it is easy to waste. This administration has turned that into an art form.
I called the NO Visitor’s Bureau and let them know what I thought of their wasting $5,000,000 that could have gone towards helping small businesses cope with the lost tourism dollars.
Our family was planning a trip to the WW II Museum.
We have cancelled our plans.
Since the city has started calling out entire ethnic groups, I wonder when they will post ads chastizing the group who commits 95% of the crime in the Big Easy......
Two things I have learned from reading the article and the original:
A) The Grauniad laughingly considers its influence to be decisive enough to persuade vast multitudes of British tourists not to visit New Orleans, out of a circulation of what, 200,000? Most of whom are probably already yankophobic sandal-wearers.
B) Helen Mirren really is a silly b**ch....
Oh come on, its a bit much isnt it? An ad campaign which pillories the people who are supposed to own the company that gave them the money to run the ad!
For you Americans who are wondering what we are talking about, the Grauniad is a Brit slang term for the Guardian newspaper, the one that exposed the lunatic economics behind the ad. It got called "the Grauniad" originally because it had a terrible reputation for typo errors. The paper has a reputation for being classic old style liberal - elitist, middle-class, read by people who can afford to hold statist type viewpoints because they have enough money to ride out the damage it does.
Really; “It has cancelled the campaign for fear of upsetting British tourists...”
I guess being cowardly, is just too much to bear while having to worry about the concerned and those who are offended at the same time.
And really fearing a bunch of Euro-bitches being upset, oh c’mon.
The only reason it has had an effect is because the New Orleans Tourist board has vastly overestimated power of the Grauniad over the British public. It has a tiny readership of no more than a couple of hundred thousand.
And in my experience, Guardian readers tend not to be the kind of people who get upset when other people slag Britain off. They’re more likely to agree with the foreigners doing the slagging and apologise on behalf of all of us for our past imperialism....
It not about cowardice, its the inanity of using money from a company to produce ads that libel that company. And it is libel to equate BP with British Petroleum. It is a cynical attempt by this administration to deflect all the anger for this botch up onto someone else.
To protest the British, I am now referring to English Muffins as “Freedom” Muffins and to Fox News Channel’s Brit Hume as “Free” Hume.
Good point, thank you.
It's the sleight of hand that I object to. There's no doubt BP have a responsibility here - no one is questioning that. But they don't have SOLE responsibility.
Modern day Englishmen don't eat them. Not at all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.