Having worked in the advertising industry for a while, I can tell you that creating a great ad is a lot more difficult than skewering a bad ad. That’s partly why I left a full-time gig in adland to focus on writing. Although the bigger reason, if I’m honest, is that I wrote a column saying I was going to quit my stupid advertising job before actually quitting, and my boss saw it and reacted as you might expect.
But my poor life choices are not the point; the point here is other people’s poor choices, namely those of some marketers in New Zealand. You see, the people at Tourism New Zealand are facing international ridicule for a new advertising campaign – with the tagline “Everyone must go!” – designed to entice Australians to visit.
What is so bad about the ad? According to a Guardian article on the backlash, a number of opposition politicians and social media users reckon it sounds like a clearance sale. Well, yes, that was sort of the point! Congratulations to all the critics, you figured out the underlying idea. Other naysayers think it sounds like a plea for people to use the toilet – an interpretation that may say more about them than the campaign. Perhaps the most legitimate criticism, however, is that the country is seeing record emigration and so this feels tone-deaf.
If any of the people at Tourism New Zealand feel stung by the criticism, they should take heart – they are not even close to being in the Most Unfortunate Tourism Campaign hall of fame. Top prize probably goes to the Hong Kong tourism board for ads with the tagline “Hong Kong will take your breath away” that went out shortly before the Sars epidemic. Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania) gets an honourable mention in the Shamelessly Tasteless category for a 2019 campaign where it called itself the “G-Spot of Europe” because “nobody knows where it is, but when you find it – it’s amazing”.
Frankly, I think the New Zealand advert is a success. Everyone is talking about it, after all. And it certainly has me thinking about a trip down under. But then again, it is winter in Trump’s America: the wind chill is high and the fascism factor even higher. I would go absolutely anywhere right now.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
