A new tourism related ad, the Discover America campaign, depicts a diverse U.S. citizenry against magnificent landscapes. The effort is said to make the Canadian tourism industry nervous, given the fact that the country has seen a recent slip in tourism from a top destination, to 18th place.
However, campaign representatives have indicated that the real goal of the Discover America ad is to establish a new brand for America, by diverting from its often militaristic focus.
Managed by Brand USA, the ad features Roseanne Cash with a diverse set of musicians, performing Land of Dreams, against a backdrop of both country and urban settings. Scenes intersperse multicultural imagery, with women dressed in hijab and sitar and tabla playing musicians.
The tagline, Discover this land as never before, represents a folksy, more kind and gentle America. It is part of the first national campaign designed to sell American tourism since the Reagan administration.
Launched in the U.K., Canada and Japan, the ad will also be broadcast in Australia, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, India and China by fall of 2013.
A representative from the Canadian Tourism Commission has indicated that they hope to collaborate with travel agents to present the U.S. and Canada as a vacation package deal, to leverage the ad’s success.
Christina Johnson is a proud born and raised Torontonian. Christina has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade having contributed to several large publications including the Yahoo News and the Financial Post. As a journalist for White Pine Tribune, Christina covers national and international developments.
