"Tonight I'm not Susan, call me Antoinette."


"Do you think I need a breast reduction?"

Toronto's press has come together to resoundingly pan the latest "T.O. Live with Culture" campaign that tries to promote the city to our southern neighbours (CTV, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star).

Here are some quotes:

Toronto's Live with Culture promotion program is where the off-beat campaign started. With a little money left over in the budget, program manager Gregory Nixon decided to find a new approach to attracting American tourists.

"We're trying to do something a little different, we're trying to play around, we're trying to be playful," Nixon said. . .

Nixon hopes they will break perceptions that Toronto is a bland, uninteresting city.

"We're about art. We're about making culture and cultural ideas and trying to get other people around the world interested in them," Nixon said.

"So if we've managed to provoke some kind of a debate about how Toronto wants to represent itself to the rest of the world, well then I saw we've achieved our goals."

Research consistently shows that Toronto's image is fusty, he said. "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.

"So we thought, why don't we play with it, to promote a discussion and plant the idea in people's heads that Toronto might be slightly more interesting than the way it's been promoting itself in the past."

He approached Foote, Cone & Belding Canada to come up with some ideas, and liked what they delivered.

Now he'd like to hear from a broader audience.

"We want to get a debate going around this thing: Does it work or doesn't it?"

Gregory Nixon, project manager for TO Live with Culture, defended the campaign as "a direct response to a long history of marketing Toronto in very unimaginative ways." While he conceded the ads do not truly reflect Toronto, Mr. Nixon said that wasn't really the point.

"We're not just clean and safe and dull," he said. "We've got a bit of sexiness."

I don't understand the ads on a number of levels. Rather than holding the city up as a hip, exciting place to visit, they seem more a parody of Toronto. "That's what Torontonians think is edgy?" we can hear people asking, "what a lame place." Check out the cat in the first ad. I swear that it looks embarrassed if not horrified.

The ads certainly don't represent the Toronto I know and love -- the one that offers virtually limitless variations of themes and interests and is more than enough for any visitor.

We've just finished our TTC website challenge to Adam Giambrone. Maybe it's time to have an "Advertising Toronto Challenge." Are you ready?

2. The difference in the "TTC Challenge" is that the TTC were obviously suffering from a lack of professional input and resources. This campaign seems to be the opposite. A well funded group of professionals came up with this, but maybe they just got it wrong this time. While some of the quotes in the press indicate the lack of humor of the critics, there were some valuable points. Namely, it's hard to sell something by saying what it "isn't". This looks like someone just thought too much about it and perhaps were trying to emulate the attitude of the clever "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." campaign. It might not be hip, but maybe most travel ads appear cheesy and typical because that's what works. There might be some truth in a tried and true cliché? Recently, I've thought that the ads and short interstitials of local media (CTV, CityTV, and Toronto Star) with a sort of, "Our Town" type of message are probably as effective as anything in presenting Toronto's personality. Having said that, the "T.O. Live With Culture" program has had more than it share of misfires. What's up with that?
   
   Posted by peter  on  {comment_date format=’%m/%d’}  at  {comment_date format=’%h:%i %A’}
Posted by peter  on  01/28  at  04:24 PM

3. i think some of them are quite funny. and i also think the Live with Culture campaign does a great job of featuring our city’s culture—just look at the Now ads they run (they feature a diverse range of artists and arts organizations—nothing clever or cheeky or self-reverential – the ads are a platform for city culture, as they should be). seems like the purpose of this campaign was to stir the pot… this didn’t come out of a large multi-million dollar budget (like the ‘’Toronto Unlimited’’ or other Toronto Tourism efforts) it was created pro bono (ie. free) presumably in the hopes of generating publicity and winning awards. the Vegas campaign is classic—probably the most cited tourism work next to the I heart NY logo—but for every “What happens in Vegas…” there are thousands of weaker efforts and i think the sheer audacity (and humour) of these ads puts them a cut above the standard stuff we’re using to promote our city.

   Posted by  on  01/29  at  01:11 PM

4. I overlooked that this campaign was done pro bono but I think that emphasizes how the City has such ready access to creative professionals. My comments weren’t intended so much about the campaign itself (which I admit shows somebody is trying different approaches) but that the TTC lacks that kind of input, which is what is so interesting about Reading Toronto’s challenge. I guess I was also kind of saying that sometimes designers can be too “Hip” for their intended audience but that’s another discussion.

   Posted by Peter  on  01/29  at  01:22 PM

5. i agree – i think Toronto does lack this kind of input and that our city’s deep creative talent should be tapped more often when it comes to promoting our city. the difference is that the Live with Culture campaign is actively seeking this input and the people who spend a lot more money (ie. tens of millions more) aren’t seeking this input (and are even criticizing this work for not fitting their ‘’strategy’’!). i hear ya on the ‘’hip’’ front but i think these ads work that way—they’re running in small alternative weeklies (like Now) and i think as advertising for cities go, well, they’re kinda cool (not a lot of copy or ‘’sell’’ no logos – just a simple clean message, a wink). anyway – we’re on the same page, i think.

   Posted by  on  01/29  at  01:32 PM

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