New Bahamas Ad Campaign Slammed

On the same day that columnist was ripping into the campaign, one of the TV ads it features was selected as the best TV spot across the US by an advertising industry website, AdCritic.com.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lewis Lazare derided the new multimillion-dollar, multimedia campaign, which the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism kicked off with much fanfare at a trendy New York hotel last week.

He gave it a "D" grade, but tourism officials were quick to point out on Tuesday that Mr. Lazare was perhaps the first ad that was "not entirely positive," and equally quick to point out that it is an opinion piece.

While acknowledging that Mr. Lazare is "of course, entitled to his opinion," Director of Communications for the Ministry of Tourism Gabriella Fraser pointed out that the "Bahamavention" campaign had been tested before launch.

"In fact, even before we launched the Bahamavention campaign, we were very careful as far as testing the campaign. [It] was tested on focus groups both in the US and here at home, and we only released it after we were very satisfied with it," Ms. Fraser said.

"So as far as the testing, we were very happy with the results. And generally it’s a campaign that we are all very excited about."

From his Tuesday column, it seems Mr. Lazare’s problems with the campaign begin with the name.

"We must confess this made-up word was off-putting. At best, the locution is awkward. But more to the point, it's impossible -- without some help -- to figure out what the word might mean. Never a good sign," he wrote in Tuesday’s paper.

"Apparently, Bahamavention is meant to describe the act of someone concerned about the mental and physical condition of a friend or family member serving as an interventionist and performing a ‘vacation intervention’ that ends with a trip to the Bahamas."

"Way too convoluted, in our opinion."

Ms. Fraser reiterated that Mr. Lazare was writing a column.

"It is an opinion piece. And we’re satisfied that whatever you do out there, you’re never going to please everyone. So, [as for] Mr. Lazare – while he may not have been quite complimentary to the campaign – we are satisfied that we did do due diligence and we’re very happy with the response that we’ve been getting because we’ve been getting positive responses both internationally and at home."

"And in fact," Ms. Fraser added, "the ad featuring Monte was in fact this week named "Ad of the Day" in US television."

The campaign was launched last week, so the "Monte" ad and all the others have been running for about a week.

AdCritic.com, an advertising industry website founded in 1999, on Tuesday selected the "Monte" spot as the top TV commercial across the US.

According to Mr. Lazare, The Bahamas has the virtue of being far enough away from the United States to seem like "a really different and inviting place, while still close enough to make getting there easy. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism knows this about its country and aggressively markets the Bahamas to Americans, especially right about now."

He pointed out that ad-company Fallon/Minneapolis has been entrusted since 2003 with luring tourists to the Bahamas via a campaign with the theme "Escape from Everyday Life."

"But," he wrote, "for a souped-up effort beginning this week -- with triple last year's media spend behind it -- Fallon is introducing a different twist to the advertising via a new theme word, Bahamavention."

The columnist also took aim at the print and television campaign that support the "Bahamavention" campaign.

"The print and TV campaign is supposed to feature a cast of characters to whom just about anyone could relate. But from what we've seen of the print portion of the campaign, the images of these characters are obviously exaggerated -- perhaps for comic effect -- thereby rendering them freakish oddballs," Mr. Lazare wrote.

Every print execution presents a different beneficiary of a "Bahamavention" smiling in a strange fashion at the camera, which led us to conclude each just might have gone a little wacko -- if they weren’t already -- on the beach in the Bahamas."

"We'll refrain from going into detail about the mostly painful-to-watch TV spots. Each introduces another sorry soul at the end or his or her rope who is counseled by friends or relatives about the need for a Bahamavention," he added.

"We really cringed at a spot where a man is screaming at the top of his lungs to family members while denying that he yells. After watching this, we too could have used a Bahamavention almost as much as he."

Ms. Fraser noted that Mr. Lazare’s response touches on the humour and characters.

"We were going for humour. We’re doing something different – we’re saying why do you want to travel? You want to travel to get away from the stress, so we want people to find humour in it, to smile to enjoy, and to come to The Bahamas for recovery from their overstressed or overworked life," she said.